Northwestern Earns Sweep of Illinois With 4-3 Win In Nightcap

5/3/2017 6:47:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern earned a sweep of Illinois Wednesday at Sharon J. Drysdale Field, closing the book on the Wildcats' season in Evanston with a 4-3 victory over the Illini in the nightcap between the teams.

Northwestern now is 22-27 on the season, 8-12 in the Big Ten. Illinois is 35-15, 13-6 in the conference. NU won game one Wednesday by a 7-4 score.

Northwestern now travels to Iowa City this weekend to conclude the regular season with a three-game set at Iowa. All three games will be streamed live on BTN Plus.

NU starter Nicole Bond needed just seven pitches for a 1-2-3 top of the first inning, then the Wildcats speed game kicked right back into high gear. Sabrina Rabin started it with a ground ball to short that was bobbled for an error, then moved to second on a wild pitch. Krista Williams singled her to third before swiping second herself. Marissa Panko started the scoring on a fly ball to left that was caught deep enough for Rabin to run home, putting NU on top 1-0 heading into the second.

Bond tossed a pair of perfect innings to start the game, but Illinois got on the board in the third to take a 2-1 lead, but it was short lived.

Williams led off the bottom half of the third with a walk and Panko singled. Morgan Nelson then one-hopped the fence in left with a blistering double, bringing Williams home and sending Panko to second with the score tied, 2-2. The shot knocked Illinois' Game Two (and Game One) starter Breanna Wonderly out of the circle in favor of Erin Walker, who was able to retire the next two Wildcats in row -- but not the third.

Sammy Nettling outraced the throw on a little flare one-hopper to short that drove in Panko, then the catcher executed a perfect double steal with Nelson for another Wildcats run, pushing NU out in front by two, 4-2.

Illinois got one of those runs back with a two-out RBI single in the top of the fourth, and then the offense thrust and parried for a while without anyone else coming home. In the top of the fifth, the Illini got a runner to third with one out and Bond was able to keep her there. Kenzie Ellis missed a home run by a Wildcats' whisker with two outs in the bottom half, settling for a double and ending the inning still at second. Both teams also got runners in scoring position in the sixth to no avail.

In the top of the seventh, with the score still 4-3 in favor of NU, Illinois notched a leadoff single. That runner was called out for leaving first base early on a steal attempt then Rabin tracked down a DEEP fly ball on the warning track for the second out. A pop up finished the proceedings and gave NU the home sweep to close out 2017 at The J.

Bond (5-8) went the distance, allowing three runs on six hits and two walks with two strikeouts.

Williams collected her second-straight two-hit game of the day and her eighth multi-hit contest in NU's last 10 games.