Northwestern Closes The Deal Against No. 11 UCLA, 7-2

2/28/2016 2:00:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

CATHEDRAL CITY, CALIF. – One day after dropping a pair of contests against top-20 opponents despite holding leads in the seventh inning, Northwestern shut the door in its third opportunity Sunday at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic with an emphatic 7-2 victory over No. 11 UCLA.

With the win, Northwestern now is 7-7 on the season while UCLA falls to 9-6 with its loss. The Wildcats played quite well against a strong field at the Nutter despite its 2-3 record at the event, holding final inning leads in all but one contest.

Northwestern returns to the West Coast next weekend for the prestigious Judi Garman Classic in Fullerton, Calif.

Both teams put runners aboard in the early innings, but it was not until the top of the third that the first true threat appeared in the form of Northwestern. Sabrina Rabin led off with a single to the pitcher, then stole second and moved to third when Krista Williams slapped her second single of the game. Williams swiped second of her own accord before Andrea Filler hit a laser of a double that Williams had to perform moves from the Matrix to avoid off the second-base bag, recovering from the near cartoon holing to race around and score behind Rabin for a 2-0 Northwestern lead.

In the bottom of the third, UCLA got its first hit of the game against Northwestern starter Amy Letourneau with two outs. Letourneau immediately induced a pop up on the infield to end the inning.

The Bruins put together a more serious rally in the bottom of the fourth, using a leadoff error and a single to put runners at the corners with nobody out. Letourneau got a flyout to shallow left, but the next batter slotted a ground ball just inside the third-base bag for a two-run double, knotting the game. With the go-ahead run at third and two outs, Letourneau made an athletic snare of a comebacker off the bat of UCLA's talented leadoff slapper to keep the contest tied.

On a weekend when Northwestern outplayed the vast majority of its highly ranked opponents but had trouble shutting the door, the Wildcats took lessons learned from a tough Saturday and applied them to a four-run outburst in the top of the sixth. Letourneau started the rally with a booming double, then came around to score when Aubrie May laid down a sacrifice bunt and the throw to first sailed into right field. Abbey Boyd entered to run for May and moved to third on a Brianna LeBeau single, then scored on an RBI Brooke Marquez groundout.

Later, with two outs in the inning, Morgan Nelson smashed an RBI double of her own, stole third and trotted home when Rabin's third single of the game found center field to give NU insurance on its lead, 6-2. After that play, UCLA lifted starter Johanna Grauer in favor of Selina Ta'amilo, who finally ended the inning.

After Letourneau worked around a two-out single in the bottom of the sixth, Filler led off the seventh with a walk and Letourneau followed with a single. Fran Strub replaced Letourneau at first, then May hit a ground ball that resulted in a force of Filler at third before an error on the throw to first, allowing Strub to make it to third herself with one out. The play loomed large when LeBeau lifted a fly ball to right that was deep enough to plate Strub on the sacrifice fly, making the score 7-2.

Letourneau made quick work of the Bruins in the bottom of the seventh to complete a tremendous effort, moving to 3-4 on the year with a complete-game five hitter in which she allowed two runs (one earned) with just a single walk and three strikeouts.

Rabin was 3-for-4 with an RBI, a run and a steal, Williams had two hits, Letourneau had two hits and Filler had two RBIs.