Sunday, February 26
Cathedral City, Calif.
11 a.m. CT/9 a.m. PT
Northwestern
3-10
3
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1
Houston
6-11
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
R
H
E
Houston
0
0
0
0
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1
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1
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Northwestern
1
2
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X
3
7
0
Photo by: Stephen J. Carrera
Kenzie Ellis One-Hitter Leads Northwestern Past Houston, 3-1
2/26/2017 1:21:00 PM | Softball
CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. -- Sophomore Kenzie Ellis tossed a 1-hit shutout with a career-best 10 strikeouts to lead Northwestern to a 3-1 win over Houston Sunday morning on getaway day at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic.
Northwestern finished the Nutter Classic with a 2-2 record and now is 3-10 on the year. Houston is 6-11 on the season with its loss.
Northwestern is back in action next weekend at another star-studded event, traveling to Fullerton, California, for the prestigious Judi Garman Classic.
Ellis (1-5) was tremendous all morning, scattering six walks and allowing a dink infield single in the sixth inning for Houston's only hit. She was charged with one run. Her previous career-best for strikeouts was six before Sunday's double-digit effort.
For the third-straight game at the Nutter Classic, Northwestern jumped on the scoreboard right away in the first inning. Sabrina Rabin led off the bottom half with a base hit up the middle. She swiped second and moved to third when the throw bounced into left field. One out later, Ellis sent a fly ball deep enough into center to bring Rabin home for a 1-0 NU edge.
Also starting in the circle, Ellis issued leadoff walks in both the first and second frames. In the first inning, she struck out a pair to strand the runner, then fanned the side in the second after issuing the free pass to reach five strikeouts in the game.
Northwestern pressed on in its half of the second. Sammy Nettling continued her torrid hitting in the latter half of the Nutter Classic with a leadoff double to deep right center. Brooke Marquez sacrificed her to third, then Anna Petersen worked a full-count walk. Abbey Boyd replaced Petersen at first and swiped second, giving Northwestern runners at second and third with nobody out.
Morgan Newport started the scoring with an RBI single to left that pushed Nettling home and Boyd to third. Newport then took off for second, and nobody covered the bag so the catcher's throw sailed into center allowing Boyd to race home for a 3-0 NU lead after two.
Ellis sailed through a 1-2-3 third, ending the inning with her sixth strikeout of the contest. Houston opted to replace its starter, Trystan Melancon, with Presley Bell to start the bottom half. Ellis reached on a one-out single and flex runner Alcy Bush eventually got to third with two outs, but she stayed there.
In the top of the fifth, Ellis issued a two-out walk to end a stretch of 11-consecutive Cougars retired since the second inning. She got the next batter to ground out on two pitches, however, to keep her gem intact!
Houston again made a pitching change to start the bottom of the fifth, inserting Savannah Heebner. Rabin greeted her with an infield single and immediately stole second for the second time in the game. Heebner recovered from there with a little help on the infield to keep the Wildcats from extending their lead.
In the top of the sixth, the leadoff Cougar hit a little dink off the end of her bat that barely got over Ellis in the circle, spinning to a stop before Marquez could get there. The infield single was the first base knock of the game for Houston against Ellis. One out later, a pair of walks loaded the bases for Houston in its first real rally of the morning. The Cougars pushed one run across on a sacrifice fly and had runners at second and third with two outs when Ellis racked up her ninth strikeout to keep NU's lead at 3-1.
With the score the same in the top of the seventh, the leadoff Cougar drew a full-count walk against Ellis. The #B1GCats sophomore fanned the next batter to reach double-digit Ks, then got a pair of groundouts to close out her gem.
At the plate, both Rabin and Nettling collected a pair of hits to lead Northwestern.
••••••
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Ellis, Kenzie (1-5)
L: MELANCON, Trystan (2-5)
Batting:
RBI: BARKER, Sarah 1
SH: CRUMPTON, Kaylin 1
SF: BARKER, Sarah 1
Base Running:
RUNS: JAMES, Arielle 1
SB: THOMAS, Maya 1
Batting:
2B: Nettling, Sammy 1
RBI: Ellis, Kenzie 1 ; Newport, Morgan 1
SH: Marquez, Brooke 2
SF: Ellis, Kenzie 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Rabin, Sabrina 1 ; Nettling, Sammy 1 ; Boyd, Abbey 1
SB: Rabin, Sabrina 2 ; Boyd, Abbey 1 ; Newport, Morgan 1
Game Leaders
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
2
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
AB
2
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
OF
/ Softball
P
/ Softball
IF
/ SoftballC
/ Softball
P/U
/ SoftballOF
/ SoftballOF
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