Facing another doubleheader against Loyola-Chicago, the Northwestern softball team needs to bring along its brooms and bats and try for an elusive two-game sweep.
Spring cleaning will hopefully commence Wednesday afternoon at Anderson Field, as the Ramblers (16-14) make the trek up Sheridan Road to Evanston to take on the Wildcats (17-18). NU continued its month-long flirtation with the .500 mark last weekend, reaching the plateau on two separate occasions. The Cats lost the second games of the Purdue and Indiana series.
The unfavorable trend — downing opponents in the first meeting but losing the second — has plagued NU since its split with Wisconsin in late March. Since that meeting, aside from two dominating performances at Minnesota, the Cats have been unable to string together consecutive victories.
Maintaining concentration and intensity for the second games against opponents has been stressed to NU throughout practice this week.
“The first step is to recognize that there is a problem with it,” said coach Sharon Drysdale. “We could spin our wheels forever and come up with umpteen different reasons why and we’re still left with having to maintain the edge, maintain the focus that we come to the ballpark with.”
Drysdale cited the length of time the Cats spend playing doubleheaders as factors affecting their attention span. She also jokingly suggested that taking a ride on the team bus in between games might guide NU to victory in rematches.
Loyola-Chicago is a mystery to many of the Cats, who have either never faced the Ramblers or don’t recall much from past meetings. NU split two games with Loyola-Chicago last season at Loyola Softball Park, winning the second half of a doubleheader 3-1 after being blanked in the first affair, 8-0.
The major challenge for the Cats will be maintaining their focus on the Ramblers, even with NU hosting Michigan State Friday and No. 12 Michigan this weekend. The Michigan schools accounted for six Cats’ losses last season, and NU will be out for blood in the crucial conference matchups.
“I’m looking at this game (Loyola-Chicago) to get my timing right,” junior Brooke Siebel said. “I don’t like having time off, so it will be good to have these games and have an easy day Thursday, relax and come out hard on Friday.”
Due to the splits last weekend, lineup and pitching changes will be in order for Wednesday’s doubleheader, Drysdale said. Freshman Brie Brown and Siebel will be the starters against the Ramblers, with freshman Lauren Schwendimann available in the bullpen.
One positive trend for the Cats is their sheer dominance over opponents in Game 1 of doubleheaders. NU trounced Illinois-Chicago 15-1 in the first game of last week’s doubleheader before dropping the nightcap 3-1, and the Cats fell to Purdue 6-2 Friday after demolishing the Boilers 17-5 earlier that day.
“As soon as you lose a game there is an immediate motivation to say, ‘I’m glad I’ve got another chance. Let’s vindicate ourselves and let’s come back,'” Drysdale said. “And especially when it’s a whipping, there’s a little bit of extra drive.”
NU will need to raise the bar both at the plate and in the field to get its desired sweep. Hitting different pitchers in two games becomes a difficult task for the Cats, who have beaten the ace hurlers of their opponents before dropping games to No. 2 starters.
“Every pitcher is different so even if there is a slower pitcher, it’s harder to hit because your timing is off,” sophomore outfielder Rane Gunderson said. “We might get out to beat the best one and then let down after being in the first game.”
Despite the travails with the bat, hitting was probably the furthest thing from NU’s mind as it tried to examine the losses at Purdue and Indiana. With a plethora of errors and unearned runs in the Hoosier state, the Cats practically gave away some crucial Big Ten games.
With its Big Ten rivals strolling into Evanston this weekend, NU must avoid putrid displays like the five-error adventure at Purdue last Friday. Drysdale said extreme aggressiveness in attempting double plays was the major cause of the defensive letdowns.
“We just press a little too hard defensively and we just got to relax and be sure to get the outs,” freshman infielder Robyn Pettinger said. “Sometimes we try to make the double play, but we really need to get that first out, which is the most important.”
