MADISON, Wis. The Northwestern softball team split a doubleheader atWisconsin on Friday, winning a ten-inning marathon 2-1 and dropping the secondgame 5-1.
Freshman pitcher Lauren Schwendimann and junior designated player BrookeSiebel were the heroes in the win in the Wildcats’ (10-15, 1-1) first Big Tengame of the season. Schwendimann went the distance, striking out 12 and givingup just one unearned run on eight hits to bring her record to 5-7 on the season.
“(Lauren) has come a long way,” said sophomore catcher GretchenBarnes, who drove in the winning run on a squeeze play in the tenth. “Whenshe keeps her head in there, she does a great job. She definitely has the talentto do it. She’s a great pitcher.”
But even though Schwendimann starred throughout the entire game, it wasSiebel who stole the spotlight with the game’s most memorable play. Down totheir last out in the seventh, Siebel stepped up to the plate to face dominantWisconsin freshman Andrea Kirchberg. The Cats trailed 1-0 and they only hadmanaged one baserunner in the entire game. But Siebel smacked a Kirchbergoffering over the left field fence to knot the game at one and send it to extrainnings, where NU eventually prevailed. Beating Kirchberg, who entered the gamewith a minuscule 0.87 ERA, gave the Cats plenty of confidence.
“It was tough,” said senior shortstop Tami Jones. “We came outand adjusted towards the end, which is why we won the game.”
But even after pulling out the first game, NU was unable to carry itsmomentum into the second game. The Badgers (23-14, 1-1) broke a 1-1 deadlock inthe fifth, exploding for four runs. Siebel, who pitched 4 2/3 innings in thesecond game, had cruised relatively unharmed into the fifth, when she gave uptwo two-out singles. A grounder to Jones from the bat of Badger Chrissy Swartouttook a bad hop into the outfield and scored the go-ahead run. First basemanLindy Barth then proceeded to swat a three-run blast off Siebel to blow the gameopen, and the Cats never recovered.
“It’s pretty eaten up out there by the fifth inning,” Jones said.”I was kind of playing a little tentative. Usually I attack the ball a lotbetter than that.”
Wisconsin pitcher Jen Cummings held NU scoreless the rest of the way tomaintain the 5-1 victory.
The Cats are now in Minneapolis to play two games against Minnesota beforereturning to Evanston on Sunday night. After this weekend, the Cats have a shortbreak against non-conference foes before returning to Big Ten action in twoweeks at Purdue.
