When junior third baseman Gretchen Barnes stepped into the pitching circle in the sixth inning, the Loyola players didn’t tremble in fear – they laughed at her.

But the joke was on the Ramblers (10-16), as Barnes pitched two shutout innings, helping to give the Wildcats a 10-2 win over Loyola in Game 1. NU went on to win the second game 7-4 for a doubleheader sweep Wednesday night at Softball Park.

Barnes doesn’t normally pitch for the Cats (15-17), having thrown only three innings all year. But sophomore starter Brie Brown had to leave the game in the fourth inning with shoulder problems. Sophomore Lauren Schwendimann came in to pitch one inning, but left because she had to throw in Game 2.

So the relief call went to Barnes, who was more than up to the challenge.

“She gets excited about it,” coach Sharon Drysdale said. “She has no reservations. She’s not afraid.”

As far as the laughter, Barnes had played against some of the Loyola players in high school. And just like in high school, she mowed down her former opponents. Barnes was 17-6 with a 0.91 ERA as a pitcher her junior year at Homewood-Flossmoor High School.

“I didn’t expect to go in but when coach says warm up, I warm up,” Barnes said. “I hadn’t thrown in a long time, but I warm up my two pitches really easily.”

Barnes wasn’t the only one who warmed up easily. The whole NU squad finally got off to a good start.

The Cats had given up 12 first-inning runs in their last four games – doubleheader sweeps by Illinois and Wisconsin – but this time it was NU getting on the board early.

The Cats scored one run in the first inning of Game 1 when a single by junior centerfielder Erin Jancic brought home Barnes.

Encouraged by their hot start in Game 1, the Cats got off to an even better start in Game 2. Barnes scored on an error and Schwendimann brought home freshman Carri Leto with a single.

“We knew what we needed to do,” Drysdale said. “We came out and really hit the ball.”

Not only did the Cats score in the first inning, they also kept the Ramblers off the board. After practicing all week on first-inning situations, NU’s starters, Brown and Schwendimann, blanked the Ramblers in both first innings.

“That’s something we had had trouble with lately,” Drysdale said. “Starting out in the lead in both games helped us out a lot.”

In Game 1, NU never relinquished its early lead. Game 2 was another story.

The Cats jumped out of the gate with a 2-0 lead, but Loyola put up one run in the second inning and three in the bottom of the third to go up 4-2.

The Ramblers’ advantage was short lived. In the top of the fourth inning, sophomores Brett Nakabayashi and Robyn Pettinger scored on an error, and Leto knocked in Jancic and Barnes with a triple.

Before it was all over, the Cats had scored four runs and taken a 6-4 lead they wouldn’t give up.

“We really snapped out of it offensively,” Drysdale said. “We just had lots of people putting back-to-back hits together.”

NU’s offense had been in a major slump before Wednesday’s doubleheader. The Cats had only scored six runs in their last four games.

But in the doubleheader against Loyola, Leto drove in seven runs by herself. She finished the day 4-for-9 with two triples and a double.

The Cats offense has caught fire just in time, with NU hosting important doubleheaders against Indiana and Purdue at Anderson Field this weekend.

“I am proud of our team that we all pulled together,” Leto said. “And I hope we can carry (the momentum) into this weekend.”