Winegarner Tosses Three-Hitter, Wildcats Run-Rule Blue Demons 8-0 (6)

4/19/2017 6:22:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

EVANSTON, Ill. – Sophomore Kaley Winegarner threw a three-hit shutout and Northwestern poured on the pressure late Wednesday against DePaul at Sharon J. Drysdale Field, ending the game early with an 8-0 (6) run-rule victory.

Northwestern improves to 17-23 overall on the season with its victory while DePaul falls to 22-17 overall with its loss.

Wildcats Senior Week continues with a visit from Purdue this weekend. First pitch Friday is at 4 p.m. CT, and the first 250 fans will receive a free drawstring bag. Saturday's tilt is a 1 p.m. first pitch, but the day starts with Breakfast at the Ballpark at noon (free for students, $10 for all other fans) and ends with the 11^th annual Purple Auction at 4 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn Evanston.

Sunday's series finale is Senior Day at The J. First pitch is scheduled for noon CT with pre-game festivities beginning around 11:45 a.m.

BUY NORTHWESTERN SOFTBALL TICKETS TODAY!

Winegarner's first-career shutout was dominating. Each of the three hits she surrendered never left the infield, and she never allowed more than one base runner aboard at a time. She fanned six and walked two in 6.0 innings to move to 5-4 on the season.

Each team put one runner on base in the first three half innings of the game, but nobody got too serious about scoring until the bottom of the second. DePaul starter Kayla Landwehrmier issued a leadoff walk to Anna Petersen, but Petey was erased on a fielder's choice grounder off the bat of Morgan Nelson. The speedy sophomore made a move, stealing second and moving to third when the throw got away for an error.

After Brooke Marquez also walked, Kenzie Ellis clobbered a deep single that brought Nelson home and pushed Marquez around to third. Emma Bartz replaced Ellis at first, quickly swiping second base to put runners at second and third. Alcy Bush then smashed a ball that the third baseman was only able to knock down in front of her. By the time the Blue Demon recovered and got Bartz in a rundown, Marquez had already scored to make it a 2-0 game.

Northwestern starter Winegarner worked a 1-2-3 top of the third, punctuated with her fourth K of the game to end it. DePaul then started the bottom half with a new hurler, replacing Landwehrmier with Kennedy Garcia. Sabrina Rabin greeted her with an infield single, stole second and scored when Krista Williams singled on the infield and the ball was thrown away for an error.

With the score still 3-0 in the fifth, DePaul got its first hit since the leadoff batter of the game, but Winegarner quickly shut the door on thoughts of a rally. The Blue Demons kicked off the bottom of the inning with their third pitcher, entering Krista Dalgarn into the circle. Just like the last pitching change, Rabin led off against Dalgarn with a single and stole second. She moved to third on a Williams groundout, then scored when Marissa Panko popped up to the second baseman for a sacrifice fly…STILL ON THE INFIELD. #Fast.

Northwestern put the game to bed for good in the bottom of the sixth with a four-run rally. Nelson led off with a booming double to left, and Marquez sacrificed her to third. With two outs, pinch hitter Lily Novak walked and Abbey Boyd entered to run for her, stealing second. Bush added to her RBI tally, crushing a double into the gap in left center to score both before Rabin doubled as well, pushing pinch runner Eva Stees (in for Bush) across the plate to make the score 7-0.

Back-to-back singles from Williams and Panko sent Rabin home with the game-ending run.

Rabin scored three runs and drove in one as part of a 3-for-4 performance at the plate. Williams also had a career-best three hits while Bush matched her career high with three RBIs. Panko drove in two and Nelson scored twice to round out NU's offensive leaders.