Winegarner Duels No. 8 Washington Into Extras, #B1GCats Fall 3-0 (8)

3/5/2017 1:45:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

FULLERTON, Calif. – Northwestern sophomore Kaley Winegarner dueled a pair of pitchers from No. 8 Washington into extra innings in a scoreless game Sunday morning at the Judi Garman Classic, but the Huskies were able to cash in on the international tiebreaker in the eighth to defeat the Wildcats, 3-0 (8).

Northwestern concludes its difficult Judi Garman Classic schedule with a 3-2 record, and now is 6-12 overall on the season. NU earlier defeated No. 23 California, South Carolina and Fresno State while falling to No. 3 Florida. Washington improves to 15-3 on the season with its victory. The two teams met one week ago at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic, where the Huskies won 6-3.

Of NU's 12 losses this season, 10 have come against ranked opponents including three in extra innings. Northwestern previously fell to No. 21 Baylor and No. 24 Pittsburgh in extras.

Northwestern now is off for winter quarter finals before resuming action with six games March 17-19 at the Santa Clara Invitational on Spring Break 2017.

The Wildcats made a bid to score in the first inning Sunday just as they did in the teams' last meeting a week ago. This time, Sabrina Rabin led off with a double before Krista Williams followed with a walk. One out later, Washington starter Madi Schreyer hit Sammy Nettling with a pitch to load the bases. The Huskies infield picked up their pitcher, though, making an out at the plate on a ground ball before getting the inning-ending force at second base.

Northwestern starting pitcher Winegarner retired Washington 1-2-3 in the top of the second, then NU got two more hits in the bottom half from Anna Petersen and Marissa Panko. Again Schreyer avoided damage by stranding both Wildcats.

Washington got a pair of one-out singles in the third before Winegarner put a stop to that. The next Huskies base runner did not come until a leadoff walk in the fifth, but Nettling quickly threw her out trying to steal to keep the Huskies off the board through five frames.

After the second inning, Northwestern got Nettling aboard via an error in the third and had a pair of hard lineouts to right in the fourth. In the bottom of the fifth, Williams drew her second walk of the game and ended up at third base with two outs. Nettling walked to give NU runners at the corners before Brooke Marquez hit a high-bouncing ball over the head of the pitcher up the middle. The shortstop ranged over toward the second-base bag to grab it, quickly underhanding to second for an inning-ending force.

Washington put together its most serious threat of the game in the top of the sixth. With one out, back-to-back singles followed by an error loaded the bases for the Huskies. The next batter tapped a comebacker to Winegarner, who easily flipped home for the force before Alcy Bush fielded a ball at first and took it to the bag herself to end the inning.

Washington elected to replace Schreyer with Taran Alvelo in the bottom half, and new Huskies hurler retired NU's 6-7-8 batters in order to send the game scoreless in seventh.

For the second-straight inning, the Huskies put a runner at third with less than two outs, this time on a single, a sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch. The leadoff batter in the Washington order tried to drag a bunt up the first-base line, but it bounced up and hit her after she left the box for an exceptionally fortunate second out for the Wildcats. Winegarner then got a first-pitch grounder to Bush at first to end the inning.

In the bottom of the seventh, Panko hit a solid single into right field and moved to second when Rabin's sacrifice bunt was so good, that she beat it out for a single. After an unsuccessful bunt attempt for the first out, Kenzie Ellis ripped a ball down the third-base line, but it was right at the fielder who stepped on the bag and fired to first for an inning-ending double play.

With the international tiebreak rule in effect, the Huskies began the eighth inning with a runner at second. The first batter singled the runner to third, then another single broke the stalemate and gave Washington the first lead, 1-0. The Huskies then got themselves a cushion when NU threw the ball away on a sacrifice bunt attempt to score one more run before a sacrifice fly made it 3-0 heading into the bottom half.

First-year Eva Stees pinch ran for Northwestern at second as the Wildcats ITB runner, moving to third when Nettling grounded out to second. Marquez walked to allow the tying run to come to the plate, but Alvelo and the Huskies kept NU off the board.

Winegarner (0-2) was the hard-luck loser in a splendid performance, allowing three unearned runs on eight hits and four walk with five strikeouts while going all eight innings.

Rabin and Panko each had two hits apiece to lead NU at the plate.