In a weekend where possibilities were plentiful, the Northwestern softball team couldn’t help itself and couldn’t get any help from anyone else.
By virtue of a 3-1 loss at home to No. 15 Iowa Sunday, the Wildcats (26-22, 12-6 Big Ten) finished the regular season in fourth place in the Big Ten. The Cats had a chance to take the conference title up to their last game but fell short after a weekend split with the Hawkeyes (42-12, 14-4).
The fourth-place finish left NU without a bye in the Big Ten tournament, which begins Thursday. NU will face fifth-seed Wisconsin (34-23, 9-6) in the first round on Thursday.
“I was hoping for No. 1 or No. 2, obviously,” NU senior Mikie Chambers said. “But I’m happy with No. 4.”
The Cats still had a shot to win the Big Ten Sunday, thanks to a 6-2 come-from-behind victory Saturday at Anderson Field. NU fell behind 2-0 in the third, but gathered three hits to start the fourth.
Cleanup hitter Brooke Siebel then stepped to the plate and smacked a grand slam that put the Cats up for good.
“It was a fastball in,” Siebel said. “I was looking for something up because I knew they had been getting me on low pitches.”
Two hitters after the Siebel slam, Iowa brought in ace hurler Kristi Hanks — and didn’t take her out of the pitching circle the rest of the weekend.
Hanks returned Sunday to toss a complete game one-hitter. Another Siebel home run was the lone blemish on an otherwise stellar performance.
“She’s a good pitcher,” Chambers said. “She just kept us off balance.”
But the Cats’ troubles against Hanks were only part of the problem. Iowa kept the ball on the ground Sunday, exposing NU’s defensive weaknesses. The Cats allowed two unearned runs — the winning runs — off two Tami Jones’ errors.
“Physical errors happen. You can’t do anything about them,” Chambers said.
The Hawkeyes, on the other hand, played flawless defense for most of the series, making only one error Saturday.
As a result, NU had to earn everything it got against Iowa.
“There were some times when we just hit dribblers and then when we did hit the ball hard they ran them down,” NU coach Sharon Drysdale said. “We couldn’t get into the flow of anything. We really were looking for the long ball Sunday.”
