Before Northwestern’s game Saturday against Illinois, LaurenSchwendimann plans to call a friend on the Ohio State softballteam.
Schwendimann wants to wish that friend, Buckeyes’ pitcher KatieDeVries, good luck in Ohio State’s series against Penn State. IfOhio State doesn’t defeat the Lady Lions (29-20, 8-8 Big Ten) atleast once, the Cats (30-15, 9-9) will be eliminated from the BigTen tournament picture for the second consecutive year.
Going into the final weekend of the conference season, the NU istied with Penn State for sixth place in the conference. The top sixsquads make the tournament, but Penn State will win a tie breakerbecause it will have a higher winning percentage than NU.
While the Cats can’t do anything about the Lady Lions’ games,they can help their chances of qualifying for the postseason bysweeping No. 24 Illinois. The third-place Fighting Illini (37-11,11-5) have already clinched a spot in the tournament.
When Illinois lost both games of last Sunday’s doubleheader toIowa it was eliminated from contention for the Big Tenregular-season title. But Fighting Illini coach Terri Sullivan saidshe won’t treat these games any differently than usual.
“I don’t think any player or any coach would say that any gamedoesn’t matter,” she said. “If you’re thinking or saying that, thenyou’re not a competitor.”
Although Illinois is treating this series like normal, NUunderstands the extra importance of the series. Last season, theCats narrowly missed the postseason after losing their final twogames.
“It’s hard not to think about last year,” junior second basemanCarri Leto said. “But we can only think about how we do againstIllinois right now. We have to sweep Illinois and that’s all thereis to it.”
During the games against Illinois, Schwendimann said the teamwill focus on defeating its in-state rival, not on Ohio State’sperformance.
“After we win both games, then we’ll definitely be looking tosee what happens,” Schwendimann said.
While the team knows it faces a must-win situation, coach KateDrohan wants to make sure the Cats aren’t overly focused on thetask.
“If anything, I need to loosen them up a bit,” she said. “Everysingle person on this team knows that our goal was the postseason.We’re planning on making that happen.”
Courtnay Foster, last week’s national pitcher of the week, willstart Saturday for the Cats and likely on Sunday as well.
Foster shut out the Hawkeyes twice last weekend. In 14 inningsof work, the freshman hurler fanned 23 and allowed five hits.
“Obviously, (she’s) a terrific pitcher,” said Sullivan, theIllinois coach. “She’s been a terrific leader of her team, and I’msure the players around her feed off of her.”
During the Iowa series, Drohan saw a turnaround in the herplayer’s attitude. She said the Cats are playing less timidly thanthey did when they were swept by Minnesota April 20.
“We were playing like we were afraid to lose,” Drohan said.”(Now) we’ve shifted our mentality to attacking the opponent.”
