Damp with rain and slowed by injuries, the Northwestern softball team struggled during the first weekend of its season, splitting four games at the Louisville Slugger Invitational in Tampa, Fla.
The Wildcats (2-2) got off to a slow start, losing 5-1 to Florida Atlantic. NU coach Sharon Drysdale said her team struggled both offensively and defensively.
But in its second game, against South Florida, NU’s bats picked up the slack.
“Our hitting started to come around,” Drysdale said.
The Cats edged host South Florida in extra innings on a squeeze play, winning 2-1 after outfielder Rane Gunderson’s bases-loaded single. Drysdale was pleased with pitcher Brie Brown’s performance. In nine innings, Brown allowed only three walks and recorded five strikeouts.
NU’s third game would prove to be its most challenging. Not only did the Cats square off against No. 2 Arizona, but they had to stay loose after an eight-hour rain delay.
When play resumed, Drysdale said, NU picked up its defense, and Brown stepped up her pitching. But Brown said the rain caused her to make a few costly errors, and Arizona wound up toppling NU 6-0.
“It was difficult to maintain concentration,” Drysdale said of the rain delay. “But (Arizona) is a very good team. If we eliminated some of our errors, it could easily have been a 1-0 game.”
NU closed out the weekend on a positive note with a 4-1 win over Hawaii (the Cats’ game against Tennessee, scheduled for noon Sunday, was canceled because of the rain). Third baseman Stacey Austin went 2-for-3 in the Cats’ best offensive performance of the tournament.
“We finally got our bats going and had seven hits,” Drysdale said, adding that she expects Hawaii to crack the Top 25 this season.
Unfortunately for the Cats, their top two pitchers, Lauren Schwendimann and Brooke Siebel, sat out with injuries. Brown pitched the entire weekend for NU, but it wasn’t a shock for the sophomore — she knew about her teammates’ injuries going into the tournament.
“It was tough because it was the first tournament of the year,” Brown said. “My arm and body were not in the best of shape. I could have done better, and a lot of the mistakes I made could have been eliminated.”
Nevertheless, Drysdale was pleased with the pitcher’s performance over the weekend. The relatively inexperienced Brown improved the flaws in her pitching through trial and error.
NU’s whittled-down lineup frustrated Drysdale — but the weather may have caused even more headaches. Drysdale pointed to the constant showers as a reason for the lackluster pitching and hitting.
“Considering the conditions, I’m pretty pleased with the way the team hung together,” Drysdale said. “They supported each other and stayed in the game. They did make quite a bit of progress, but we have a long way to go.”
