Friday, February 17
Tallahassee, Fla.
5:30 p.m. CT/6:30 p.m. ET
Northwestern
1-5
2
at
3
Florida State
7-0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
R
H
E
Northwestern
0
0
2
0
0
0
0
2
6
2
Florida State
1
0
0
0
1
0
1
3
6
2
Northwestern Pushes No. 3 Florida State to the Brink, Falls 3-2
2/17/2017 8:08:00 PM | Softball
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Northwestern battled No. 3 Florida State to the bitter end Friday in its opening game of the B1G/ACC Challenge, taking the Seminoles to the bottom of the seventh in a 2-2 game before the hosts walked off with a 3-2 victory.
Florida State, which had given up just three runs total in its first six games of the year, improves to 7-0 with its victory while Northwestern now is 1-5 on the season. Three of those losses are to ranked foes.
Northwestern plays twice tomorrow at the Tallahassee site of the B1G/ACC Challenge, beginning at 12:30 p.m. CT/1:30 p.m. ET with a rematch versus the Seminoles before taking on No. 24 Pittsburgh at 5:30 p.m. CT/6:30 p.m. ET.
Northwestern played a solid game all around, matching Florida State's total of six hits and putting runners on base in every inning except one. The Wildcats stranded nine on base, however, and were unable to convert on any rallies outside of the third inning.
Florida State puts its leadoff batter in the game aboard in the bottom of the first, but junior catcher Sammy Nettling quickly erased her trying to steal. That play proved to be a big one when, with two outs, FSU got a home run to right that was good for just a single run.
In the top of the second, senior Anna Petersen led off with a driven single past the third baseman into left field. With one out, classmate Alcy Bush drew a walk to push Petersen to second before Nettling advanced both a base with a productive groundout. Seminoles starter Meghan King, however, struck out the next Wildcat to the plate to stop the rally with two in scoring position.
Following a 1-2-3 bottom of the second by Northwestern starter Nicole Bond, the Wildcats jumped on the rally horse in the top of the third. Sabrina Rabin forced an error to lead off the inning (the fifth time in six games this year that she's reached base via a play ruled an error). One out later, she swiped second before racing all the way around to score when Florida State threw away Morgan Nelson's infield single. Just as quickly as NU tied the game, Kenzie Ellis put the #B1GCats on top. She doubled off the very tippy top of the outfield wall -- missing a home run by the teensie tiniest of margins -- to bring Nelson around and make the score 2-1.
The rally could have been bigger after Petersen drilled her second single of the game to push Ellis to third, but Florida State was able to get to a Brooke Marquez grounder up the middle to turn an inning-ending double play.
Florida State put together a serious threat in the bottom of the fourth, putting its first two runners aboard. Bond got a lineout and a huge strikeout before a Seminoles pinch hitter reached to load the bags. The next batter lined a ball right back at Bond, who whiplashed her glove and snared it to end the inning.
With one out in the top of the fifth, Marissa Panko singled on the infield and Nelson reached for the third time in the game, this time on a walk. With NU rallying once again, FSU replaced King in the circle with ace Jessica Burroughs, who fanned the next two Wildcats to end the frame.
The Seminoles knotted the score in the bottom of the fifth, turning a one-out walk into a 2-2 game when the next batter doubled to left-center. Ellis entered the circle in relief of Bond and got two groundouts to leave the go-ahead run at third and send the game tied 2-2 to the sixth.
Nettling and Krista Williams each reached base with two outs in the top of the sixth for NU and stayed there. In the bottom of the sixth, Florida State got its leadoff Seminole to second with no outs. Ellis bore down for a strikeout and a popup before the runner stole third. With FSU 60 feet away from taking the lead, Ellis froze the batter for a backward K to keep things tied heading into the seventh.
NU could muster only a two-out Ellis walk in the top of the seventh, then Florida State started the bottom half with an infield single. After a steal of second, Northwestern threw the ball away on a sacrifice bunt attempt, allowing the winning run to come home.
Ellis (0-3) took the loss in relief, going 1.2 innings and giving up one unearned run on two hits with two strikeouts. Bond was strong in her start, tossing 4.1 frames and allowing two runs on four hits and four walks with three strikeouts.
Nelson and Petersen each had two hits for NU in the game.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Burroughs, Jessica (3-0)
L: Ellis, Kenzie (0-3)
Batting:
2B: Ellis, Kenzie 1
RBI: Ellis, Kenzie 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Rabin, Sabrina 1 ; Nelson, Morgan 1
SB: Rabin, Sabrina 1
HBP: Nettling, Sammy 1
Batting:
2B: Warren, Jessica 1 ; Powers, Alex 1
HR: Warren, Jessica 1
RBI: Warren, Jessica 2
SH: Cooper, Ellie 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Klaevemann, Morgan 1 ; Cooper, Ellie 1 ; Warren, Jessica 1
SB: Klaevemann, Morgan 1 ; Bush, Deja 2
CS: Klaevemann, Morgan 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
dp/p
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
P
/ Softball
P
/ Softball
IF
/ SoftballIF/C
/ Softball
C
/ SoftballIF/OF
/ SoftballOF
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OF
/ Softball
OF
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