Saturday, February 20
Chapel Hill, NC
2:30 p.m. CT/3:30 p.m. ET
Northwestern
5-3
11
at
8
North Carolina
3-5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
R
H
E
North Carolina
0
0
0
4
3
1
0
8
8
1
Northwestern
0
2
4
0
0
0
5
11
16
0
Morgan Nelson's Grand Walk-Off Gives NU 11-8 Win at UNC
2/20/2016 5:29:00 PM | Softball
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- One day after North Carolina hit a walk off home run against Northwestern at the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, the Wildcats returned the favor courtesy of a Morgan Nelson bottom-of-the-seventh grand slam, giving NU an 11-8 win over the Tar Heels Saturday at Anderson Stadium.
Northwestern now is 5-3 overall on the season with the win while North Carolina falls to 3-5. Northwestern concludes its B1G/ACC Challenge schedule tomorrow at 9 a.m. CT/10 a.m. ET against Boston College.
Nothing much went down in this game until there were two outs in the bottom of the second, then it went down for real. With Northwestern serving as home team in this contest at North Carolina's stadium, junior Anna Petersen stood at the plate in the last of the frame and pulverized a pitch to deep center for her first home of the season and the second of her career. On the very next pitch, classmate Alcy Bush sent a ball to the same spot to make it back-to-back #B1GCats jacks and a 2-0 Northwestern lead.
Bush's blast was the first of her Wildcats career.
The very next inning, Northwestern went back-to-back AGAIN with two outs to spark a four-run rally. This time, noted sluggers Andrea Filler and Amy Letourneau did the deed to double the Wildcats lead to 4-0. Filler's home run was her team-leading fourth of the year, the 30th of her college career and 22nd of her three-year Northwestern tenure. Letourneau's shot was her second of the day, third of the year and the 32nd of her career.
The third inning continued with a Sammy Nettling single followed by a Brooke Marquez double to plate the NU catcher. UNC then replaced Kendra Lynch in the circle with Sydney Matzko. Petersen drew a walk from Matzko and Bush delivered an RBI single to score Marquez, pushing the Wildcats lead out to 6-0. Freshman Morgan Nelson singled the bases loaded, but Matzko and North Carolina finally escaped the rally in which eight 'Cats came to the plate after the first two outs were made.
As great as the second and third innings were for Northwestern, the top of the fourth was not. North Carolina got a comeback rally going, plating single runs on a wild pitch and a double steal. Letourneau replaced Bond in the circle and two more runs scored on a hit by pitch and passed ball to cut the Wildcats' lead all the way down to 6-4. The senior recovered, however, to get a strikeout with the bases loaded and preserve a two-run edge heading to the bottom half.
The Tar Heels tacked on three more runs in the top of the fifth to take a 7-6 lead. Freshman Kenzie Ellis entered the circle midway through that rally and remained there in the top of the sixth, when a leadoff triple scored on a groundout to make NU's deficit two runs, 8-6.
Sabrina Rabin and Filler recorded singles in the bottom of the sixth and made their way to second and third with two outs, but Matzko escaped on the very next pitch. In the top of the seventh, Ellis worked a 1-2-3 frame with a pair of strikeouts to set the stage for the bottom of the seventh.
Nettling led things off with a seven-pitch battle that resulted in a single to center. Marissa Panko replaced her on the base paths, and immediately motored around to third when Marquez doubled down the left field line. Petersen then reached first safely on a fielder's choice grounder to third, loading the bases with no outs.
Bush continued her career day with a single into center that scored Panko and cut the deficit to a single run before Nelson sent everyone home in grand fashion with a deep fly to center field. It was the second home run of her career.
Northwestern's five home runs in the game were its most since hitting five in a win over Wisconsin on March 28 of last year.
Filler finished 3-for-4 at the plate with her home run while Bush went 3-for-4 with a home run, a trio of RBIs and two runs scored. Marquez doubled twice and scored twice, and Petersen had two runs to go along with her dinger. Rabin, Nettling and Nelson each collected two hits, with Nelson driving in four.
Starting for the first time since 2014 and doing so in front of a hometown crowd in North Carolina, Bond went 3.1 innings and allowed four runs (three earned) on three hits and five walks with two strikeouts. Letourneau allowed three runs on three hits and two walks with one K in 1.0 frames.
Ellis (1-0) tossed the final 2.2 innings to pick up her first collegiate victory in relief, giving up one run on two hits with three strikeouts.
Northwestern now is 5-3 overall on the season with the win while North Carolina falls to 3-5. Northwestern concludes its B1G/ACC Challenge schedule tomorrow at 9 a.m. CT/10 a.m. ET against Boston College.
Nothing much went down in this game until there were two outs in the bottom of the second, then it went down for real. With Northwestern serving as home team in this contest at North Carolina's stadium, junior Anna Petersen stood at the plate in the last of the frame and pulverized a pitch to deep center for her first home of the season and the second of her career. On the very next pitch, classmate Alcy Bush sent a ball to the same spot to make it back-to-back #B1GCats jacks and a 2-0 Northwestern lead.
Bush's blast was the first of her Wildcats career.
The very next inning, Northwestern went back-to-back AGAIN with two outs to spark a four-run rally. This time, noted sluggers Andrea Filler and Amy Letourneau did the deed to double the Wildcats lead to 4-0. Filler's home run was her team-leading fourth of the year, the 30th of her college career and 22nd of her three-year Northwestern tenure. Letourneau's shot was her second of the day, third of the year and the 32nd of her career.
The third inning continued with a Sammy Nettling single followed by a Brooke Marquez double to plate the NU catcher. UNC then replaced Kendra Lynch in the circle with Sydney Matzko. Petersen drew a walk from Matzko and Bush delivered an RBI single to score Marquez, pushing the Wildcats lead out to 6-0. Freshman Morgan Nelson singled the bases loaded, but Matzko and North Carolina finally escaped the rally in which eight 'Cats came to the plate after the first two outs were made.
As great as the second and third innings were for Northwestern, the top of the fourth was not. North Carolina got a comeback rally going, plating single runs on a wild pitch and a double steal. Letourneau replaced Bond in the circle and two more runs scored on a hit by pitch and passed ball to cut the Wildcats' lead all the way down to 6-4. The senior recovered, however, to get a strikeout with the bases loaded and preserve a two-run edge heading to the bottom half.
The Tar Heels tacked on three more runs in the top of the fifth to take a 7-6 lead. Freshman Kenzie Ellis entered the circle midway through that rally and remained there in the top of the sixth, when a leadoff triple scored on a groundout to make NU's deficit two runs, 8-6.
Sabrina Rabin and Filler recorded singles in the bottom of the sixth and made their way to second and third with two outs, but Matzko escaped on the very next pitch. In the top of the seventh, Ellis worked a 1-2-3 frame with a pair of strikeouts to set the stage for the bottom of the seventh.
Nettling led things off with a seven-pitch battle that resulted in a single to center. Marissa Panko replaced her on the base paths, and immediately motored around to third when Marquez doubled down the left field line. Petersen then reached first safely on a fielder's choice grounder to third, loading the bases with no outs.
Bush continued her career day with a single into center that scored Panko and cut the deficit to a single run before Nelson sent everyone home in grand fashion with a deep fly to center field. It was the second home run of her career.
Northwestern's five home runs in the game were its most since hitting five in a win over Wisconsin on March 28 of last year.
Filler finished 3-for-4 at the plate with her home run while Bush went 3-for-4 with a home run, a trio of RBIs and two runs scored. Marquez doubled twice and scored twice, and Petersen had two runs to go along with her dinger. Rabin, Nettling and Nelson each collected two hits, with Nelson driving in four.
Starting for the first time since 2014 and doing so in front of a hometown crowd in North Carolina, Bond went 3.1 innings and allowed four runs (three earned) on three hits and five walks with two strikeouts. Letourneau allowed three runs on three hits and two walks with one K in 1.0 frames.
Ellis (1-0) tossed the final 2.2 innings to pick up her first collegiate victory in relief, giving up one run on two hits with three strikeouts.
••••••
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Ellis, Kenzie (1-0)
L: Sydney Matzko (1-2)
Batting:
3B: Aquilla Mateen 1
RBI: Kristen Brown 1 ; Kendra Lynch 1 ; Katie Bailiff 1 ; Berlynne Delamora 1 ; Destiny DeBerry 1
SH: Lauren Fuller 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Aquilla Mateen 2 ; Kristen Brown 2 ; Erin Satterfield 1 ; Leah Murray 1 ; Kendra Lynch 2
SB: Aquilla Mateen 1 ; Kristen Brown 1 ; Erin Satterfield 1 ; Destiny DeBerry 1
CS: Kiana Sherlund 1
HBP: Berlynne Delamora 1
Batting:
2B: Marquez, Brooke 2
HR: Filler, Andrea 1 ; Letourneau, Amy 1 ; Petersen, Anna 1 ; Bush, Alcy 1 ; Nelson, Morgan 1
RBI: Filler, Andrea 1 ; Letourneau, Amy 1 ; Marquez, Brooke 1 ; Petersen, Anna 1 ; Bush, Alcy 3 ; Nelson, Morgan 4
SH: Williams, Krista 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Filler, Andrea 1 ; Letourneau, Amy 1 ; Nettling, Sammy 1 ; Panko, Marissa 1 ; Marquez, Brooke 2 ; Petersen, Anna 2 ; Bush, Alcy 2 ; Nelson, Morgan 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
4
R
1
H
3
RBI
1
AB
3
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
P
/ Softball
P
/ SoftballIF
/ Softball
P/1B
/ Softball
IF
/ Softball
IF/C
/ SoftballC
/ Softball
IF/OF
/ Softball
OF
/ SoftballOF
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