Northwestern Holds Off Iowa Rally, 6-5

4/9/2016 6:31:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern held off a furious final rally from Iowa Saturday in the second game of a Big Ten doubleheader at Sharon J. Drysdale Field, sweeping the day with a 6-5 victory in Game Two.

Northwestern now is 13-20 overall, 4-4 in the Big Ten after the win. Iowa drops to 9-25, 1-9 in the league with its loss. The series finale between the Wildcats and the Hawkeyes is scheduled for noon CT tomorrow, Sunday, April 10.

Sophomore Brooke Marquez did the honors in opening the scoring to game two, blasting a solo home run to left center in the bottom of the second frame. One inning later, Andrea Filler matched her teammate with a two-out solo shot to center to make NU's lead 2-0.

Marquez's dinger was her second of the year and the third of her career. Filler's shot gave her nine on the season; she now has 35 home runs in her collegiate career, 27 of them as a Wildcat.

Iowa got its first hit of the game against NU starter Kenzie Ellis with one out in the top of the fourth, but she quickly retired the two Hawkeyes to the plate on a lineout to Krista Williams in left and an infield pop up to Morgan Nelson at third.

Northwestern put a couple of runners aboard in a semi-threat in the bottom of the fourth, started by an Alcy Bush walk and heated up via a two-out Fran Strub double that put runners at second and third. Iowa was able to coax a slow roller to first, however, to end the inning.

After Ellis worked around a one-out walk in the top of the fifth, Northwestern put together its first serious, sustained rally of the game. Sabrina Rabin began it with a single up the middle before stealing second base. Nelson followed with a walk before, one out later, Amy Letourneau unleashed the fury on an Elizabeth Wiegand offering for a three-run home run and a 5-0 Northwestern lead.

Letourneau's homer was her third of the day after a two-dinger, eight RBI performance in Saturday's Game One. She now has 10 home runs on the year and 39 for her career.

The inning continued with an Anna Petersen pinch-hit walk and a Bush single, prompting Iowa to remove Wiegand from the circle in favor of Game One starter Shayla Starkenburg, who was able to get a double-play ground ball to end the inning.

History was made in the top of the sixth, but it was by Iowa. The Hawkeyes' Angela Schmiederer hit a two-run home run onto the roof of McGaw Hall, becoming the first visiting player in the history of Sharon J. Drysdale Field to ever homer onto the roof. The shot cut the Wildcats lead to three runs, 5-2.

In the bottom of the sixth, Strub started the inning with a walk and used alert base running to score the most important run of the contest. She still was at first later on when pinch hitter Brianna LeBeau struck out swinging, but the ball popped out of the catcher's glove. LeBeau took off for first despite being out by virtue of Strub's occupation of the bag, but Iowa's catcher still threw down -- wildly. Strub ended up coming all the way around to cross the plate and make it a 6-2 game.

Iowa rallied hard in the top of the seventh, loading the bases with two outs against Ellis. The next batter singled into center to plate two runs and cut the Wildcats lead in half, 6-4. Freshman Kaley Winegarner came in to pitch in relief with the tying run standing at second base.

The first batter Winegarner faced singled softly into center to make it 6-5, then she got a slow roller to Marquez at second to preserve the victory.

Ellie (4-5) got the win, recording all but the final out. She gave up five runs on five hits and four walks with a strikeout. Winegarner picked up the first save of her career with the last one-third of an inning.

Offensively, Rabin singled twice and swiped two bases. Letourneau drove in three runs to give her an easy 11 on the day.