Another Winegarner Shutout Stops Purdue, 6-0

4/22/2017 3:41:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

EVANSTON, Ill. – Sophomore Kaley Winegarner tossed her second-straight three-hit shutout and Northwestern handed Purdue a 6-0 defeat Saturday at Sharon J. Drysdale Field to give Kate Drohan and Caryl Drohan their 200^th career Big Ten victory.

Northwestern now is 19-23 on the season, 5-9 in the B1G. Purdue falls to 17-31 with its loss, 6-10 B1G.

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.

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Winegarner is having a fantastic week. She shut out DePaul in six innings on Wednesday, notched a clean inning for a save Friday and chucked another three-hit shutout Saturday to make it 14-straight scoreless frames. Winegarner struck out a career-high eight batters and walked no one to move to 6-4 on the year.

The only three hits she allowed in the game all were singles in the third, loading the bases for the Boilermakers without scoring success. In every other inning, Winegarner was the 1-2-3 Kid.

The victory also gave Kate and Caryl Drohan their 200^th as NU's program leaders in their 16^th season at the helm. NU has won a pair of Big Ten titles and one Big Ten Tournament in their tenure. Last season, the Drohans reached 500 overall victories for their careers.

Winegarner got the start in Saturday's second contest and retired Purdue in order in the top of the first. Meanwhile, the Wildcats' momentum at the plate also continued unabated. NU scored 10 runs in the final two innings on Friday, and finished the first on Saturday with a 1-0 lead.

Sabrina Rabin led off with a sharp grounder to short that was mishandled for an error. She stole second, and moved to third when Krista Williams beat out a single. After Williams stole second herself, Marissa Panko lifted a fly ball out to deep left-center field, easily deep enough to score Rabin and put NU on top early.

Both Winegarner and Katie Johnson for Purdue settled into the circle after NU's run in the first. Winegarner struck out the side in the second before the Boilermakers threatened to rally bigly in the third, loading the bases with one away. Winegarner got a strike out and a fly out to leave 'em loaded and leave NU on top.

The Wildcats threatened with two outs in the bottom half when Anna Petersen doubled to left and Morgan Nelson smashed a line drive to left. The Purdue fielder wheeled and raced back, reaching up over her head to grab the screamer and end the inning.

Winegarner again went 1-2-3 in the top of the fourth, setting the stage for the #B1GCats offense to party in the bottom half. Kenzie Ellis led off with a single, then barreled around the bases to score when Sammy Nettling dumped a double into the right-centerfield corner. Rabin brought Nettling home with a triple over the bag at first and into the corner, extending the Wildcats lead to three, 3-0.

Winegarner matched her career high with seven strikeouts during another perfect inning in the fifth, and once again Northwestern got rolling at the plate. This time Petersen started things with a one-out single, and Eva Stees took over on the base paths. Stees scampered all the way around to score when Nelson crushed a double to left-center.

With NU now on top 4-0, Purdue inserted Kaitlynn Moody into the circle. Pinch hitter Lily Novak singled on the infield before back-to-back walks to Nettling and Alcy Bush forced Nelson home for a 5-0 Wildcats lead heading into the sixth.

Winegarner ran her streak of consecutive batters retired to 11 in the sixth. Williams and Panko each walked to lead off the bottom half, moving up on a wild pitch. Petersen drove Williams in and moved Panko to third with an RBI groundout, then Nelson put a ball in play to short. The throw came to the plate, but Panko successfully put on the brakes and returned to third base. A double play ended the rally, however, to send the game to the seventh with NU on top, 6-0.

There, Winegarner completed her gem with yet another perfect inning, making it 14-straight Boilermakers retired in order to end the game.

Petersen and Williams each recorded a pair of base hits to lead NU's nine-hit attack at the plate.