Wildcats Score In Seventh To Top Broncos, 2-1

3/18/2017 11:31:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Locked in a tight, tense battle that went deep into the Bay Area night, Northwestern plated a run in the top of the seventh inning to defeat Santa Clara, 2-1, and complete a 2-0 Saturday at the Santa Clara Round Robin.

Northwestern moves to 8-14 on the season with its victory, Santa Clara now is 7-17. NU earlier defeated Grand Canyon, 4-2, on Saturday.

Northwestern concludes its Santa Clara Round Robin schedule with a quick turnaround in the morning, facing Long Beach State and Santa Clara in a doubleheader beginning at 11 a.m. CT/9 a.m. PT.

Neither team was able to get anything going offensively until late in the game, when errors contributed to the scoring and NU was able to fight through and earn the victory.

Sophomore Kaley Winegarner pitched a gem to lead Northwestern, needing just 80 pitches to complete the contest and move to 1-2 on the year. She gave up one unearned run on three hits with no walks and five strikeouts.

The Wildcats loaded the bases in the top of the second against the Broncos' starter Aubree Kim, getting a Morgan Nelson infield single before, with two outs, Kim hit both Alcy Bush and Brooke Marquez with pitches to juice the bags. Renee Ariola pinch hit and put a ball in play slowly to the shortstop, who had to charge and fire on the run to keep NU off the board.

Santa Clara had a shot at finding the scoreboard first in the bottom half of the frame when its leadoff batter reached via error. Two subsequent groundouts moved her to third before Winegarner shut the door with a strikeout.

Neither team was able to even put a batter aboard until Santa Clara notched its first hit against Winegarner in the bottom of the fifth: a one-out double. That runner moved to third on a groundout before Bush at first reach over into foul territory to glove a line drive just above the dirt, ending the inning with the game still knotted at zero.

Marissa Panko started a Northwestern rally in the top of the sixth, dropping a leadoff double just beyond the dive of the left fielder. She moved to third when Sammy Nettling grounded back to the pitcher, then Kenzie Ellis sent a fly ball high but shallow into left field. Head coach Kate Drohan forced the issue by sending the speedy Panko racing home, and she and the ball arrived at the same time but the catcher couldn't handle the throw, giving the Wildcats a 1-0 lead.

Santa Clara responded with a bizarre sequence in the bottom half. The leadoff batter singled, then stole second. The throw to the bag bounced off the knee of the covering fielder, taking a hard right and ending up two-thirds of the way to the fence. That distance allowed the runner to pop up and race to the plate, tying the score 1-1.

Northwestern did not allow the (literal) bad hop to sink it in this game. With one out in the top of the seventh, Bush put a ball in play that was thrown away for an error. Speedy first-year Eva Stees took over at first, moving to second on an illegal pitch call. That extra 60 feet proved to be HUGE when Marquez laced a single into left. Stees turned at third AFTER the left fielder had the ball and while she was making the throw into the plate, but the Chicago native slid in safely as the ball bounced off the catcher's chest protector, giving NU a 2-1 edge.

Santa Clara put one last bolt of intrigue into the contest with a two-out double deep to left center in the bottom of the seventh. Winegarner shut the door with a weak ground ball to Bush at first.