Sunday, May 7

Iowa City, IA

1 p.m. CT

Northwestern

24-28, 10-13

Iowa

19-31, 9-14

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Northwestern	2	1	0	0	0	0	2	5	9	0
Iowa	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	5	0

Photo by: Stephen J. Carrera

Northwestern Closes Regular Season With 5-2 Win At Iowa

5/7/2017 3:03:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Northwestern closed the regular season Sunday with a 5-2 victory over Iowa in the rubber match of the teams' series at Bob Pearl Softball Field.

Northwestern concludes the regular season with a 24-28 record, 10-13 in the Big Ten. Iowa is 19-31, 9-14 in the league. There still are two Big Ten games that need to be completed Monday before the 2017 standings are finalized.

The Big Ten Tournament bracket will be finished and released Monday night. NU will open the event Thursday in Ann Arbor, Mich., at a time and with an opponent both TBD.

Northwestern's speed has been its biggest weapon all season long, and it reared its head for the Wildcats right away Sunday. Sabrina Rabin led off with a single (improving her season-best hitting streak to 13 games) and immediately stole second. One out later, she stood at third following a perfect Marissa Panko bunt single. Panko swiped second herself, and the scoring began.

Morgan Nelson hit a fly ball to shallow left field, but even with the fielder charging in to catch it with all momentum carrying her to the plate, Rabin still took off and easily was safe on a sacrifice fly. Panko moved to third on the play, and raced home on a wild pitch for a 2-0 Wildcats lead.

A one-out triple for Iowa in the bottom of the first against NU starter Kaley Winegarner eventually led to a sacrifice fly for the Hawkeyes as well, cutting NU's lead in half. NU was able to get that run back immediately in the top of the second. Iowa starter Allison Doocy hit Brooke Marquez to lead off the frame, then Alcy Bush sacrificed Marquez to second. With two outs, Krista Williams singled into left-center field and Marquez made the turn for home, scoring easily to make it a 3-1 game.

Iowa made a pitching change in the fourth which largely kept Northwestern's offense at bay, while the Wildcats did not make a pitching change and Winegarner just got stronger. She retired the side in order in both the fifth and sixth innings, keeping Northwestern on top by a pair entering the seventh inning.

There, Bush earned a hard-fought leadoff walk and gave way to pinch runner Abbey Boyd. Rabin and Williams each followed with singles to load the bases, then the outs got productive. Panko grounded out to second, easily scoring Boyd and then Nelson recorded her second sacrifice fly of the game – this one to right field – to score Rabin and make NU's lead 5-1.

In the bottom of the seventh, the first batter to the plate singled to short. Winegarner notched a strikeout against a pinch bitter, but the next Hawkeye also singled and a hit batter loaded the bases with one gone. NU recorded the second out on an RBI grounder that made the score 5-2 before the contest ended.

Winegarner (8-6) picked up her second complete-game win of the series, tossing 7.0 inning and allowing two runs on five hits and a walk with two strikeouts.

At the plate, each of the top four in Northwestern's offensive lineup collected two hits apiece, with Nelson going 2-for-2 along with her two sacrifice flies. Rabin scored two runs.