Northwestern Plates Seven In Seventh to Beat Rutgers, 10-5

4/21/2018 3:07:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Entering the top of the seventh trailing Rutgers by a pair of runs, Northwestern exploded for a seven-run rally to earn a 10-5 victory Saturday over the Scarlet Knights at RU Softball Complex.

Northwestern now is 28-13 overall on the season, 10-5 in the Big Ten. Rutgers is 17-25 on the year, 2-11 in the league.

The Wildcats and Scarlet play their series finale is at 11 a.m. CT/noon ET tomorrow, April 22. NU returns to Evanston for a four-game home stand beginning April 25 against Loyola (Chicago) and continuing during Senior Weekend April 27-29 against Iowa.

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The seventh-inning comeback marked Northwestern's third of the Big Ten season. The Wildcats previously erased two-run deficits in the bottom of the seventh in consecutive wins over Minnesota back in March.

Rachel Lewis did her best Sabrina Rabin impression to get the scoring started in this one after Rabin lined out sharply to left field to open the game. Lewis singled through the left side of the infield with one out, then stole both second AND third base, which allowed her to race home on a Sammy Nettling sacrifice fly for a 1-0 Northwestern lead.

Nicole Bond took to the circle as the Wildcats' starter in the bottom half of the inning, but the first four Scarlet Knights to the plate reached safely to knot the score. Kenna Wilkey then took over in the circle with the bases loaded and nobody out, limiting the damage to just one more run to make Rutgers' lead 2-1 entering the second.

Lily Novak led off the second with a single, then moved to second two outs later when Mac Dunlap worked herself a full-count walk. Rabin followed with a clean single into left field that brought Novak around to score, tying the game at 2-2.

Following a perfect bottom of the second from Wilkey in which Morgan Nelson ran down several balls at or near foul territory in left, Nelson made her mark at the plate. The junior smoked a solo home run to left center to lead off the inning, putting Northwestern back in front, 3-2, on her 12^th dinger of the season. Nelson is as locked in as it gets at the plate, with her home run Saturday giving her eight four-baggers in the Wildcats' last 12 games. She now has 22 homers for her career.

In the top of the fifth, Nelson walked and Marissa Panko singled with two outs to give the Wildcats runners at second and third. Rutgers replaced starting pitcher Taylor Manno with Taryn Collins, who induced a pop-up to end the NU threat.

Rutgers rallied in the bottom of the fifth, ending Wilkey's stretch of consecutive batters retired at 12 via a one-out single. The next batter tied the game with a single before a two-run home run put the Scarlet Knights on top, 5-3.

After Wilkey stranded a Rutgers runner at third to end the bottom of the sixth, Northwestern began yet another comeback in Big Ten play. Lewis led off the top of the seventh with a walk, then Nelson was hit by a pitch to put the tying run aboard. The speedy duo executed a perfect double steal, then Nettling drove home Lewis with an RBI groundout before Panko tied the game with a single into left. The rally continued when Novak was hit by a pitch, leading to another Rutgers pitching change in which Bianca Vozenilek took the circle.

It was a short-lived appearance. Wilkey and Brooke Marquez both ripped RBI balls into play to push the Wildcats back into the lead, 7-5, before Dunlap pushed a bunt single back to the circle that loaded the bases with one out. Rutgers immediately lifted Vozenilek to insert Whitney Jones into the circle, and with two outs Lewis added the exclamation point, clearing the bases with a double to left that made it a seven-run rally and a 10-5 Northwestern lead.

Wilkey made quick work of the Rutgers side in the bottom of the inning to finish the victory. She now is 14-4 on the year and has earned the win in each of Northwestern's last six games. She threw 7.0 innings of relief Saturday, allowing three runs on six hits and a walk with six strikeouts. Bond started the game, and was charged with two runs on two hits and a walk.

Lewis had a tremendous all-around game for NU, finishing 2-for-4 with three RBIs, three stolen bases and two runs scored. Nelson ended up 1-for-1 with her home run and three walks, scoring a pair. Panko and Marquez both collected two hits, Nettling drove in two despite an 0-for-3 day at the plate and Novak scored twice.