IOWA CITY, Iowa — Tied 3-3 before the bottom of the eighth inning against Michigan State on Saturday, the Northwestern softball team did pull-ups in the dugout, cognizant that if it failed to rally, its run to the Big Ten championship game would come to a halt.
While the Cats’ bench stood on the steps of the dugout clutching each others hands and crossing their fingers, Jessie Wellnitz failed in two bunting attempts. But on the next pitch, Wellnitz drilled the ball over the left field wall, giving her team a 6-3 win that advanced the Cinderella Cats to the championship game against Iowa. It was only her second career home run.
“They have so much heart and desire to win for each other, and that’s what’s pulling us through late in the game,” NU coach Kate Drohan said.
That heart helped them persevere and win in 18 innings over No. 25 Michigan State on Thursday and in 12 innings against No. 17 Michigan on Friday.
The Cats’ hunger got them out of the losers bracket after falling to top-seeded Iowa on Friday and into the championship game.
NU barely qualified for the tournament, but it was determined to make the most out of the trip to Iowa.
The team endured an emotional roller coaster at the tournament, forcing three of its five games into extra innings. After the heartbreaking loss to No. 23 Iowa on Friday, the Cats realized their season would end if they didn’t rebound.
“For it to be in your hands like that and slip away is sickening,” Brown said after the loss. “Of course it’s going to make you cry. We’re females. We’re sensitive.”
Those tears might have also had something to do with exhaustion. In the three-day span, NU played 52 innings. Prior to this year, only one game had ever gone into extra innings in the history of the Big Ten tournament — it lasted eight innings.
“We were aiming for eight innings because we said the only game we lost was in regular innings,” Brown joked about the championship game. “We win the games in extra innings so let’s go extra.”
The Cats managed to play their best softball of the season through the first four games of the tournament, but ran out of gas early in the championship game. Physically and emotionally drained, NU struggled to get clutch hits, stranding seven runners and never advancing a runner beyond second base.
“When you play so hard it’s tough to come out in second place,” right fielder Erin Mobley said. “We don’t ever give up. We want to win so badly, even when we were tired and beat up we grinded our teeth and fought.”
The Cats also lost their leader. Starting second baseman Carri Leto tore her anterior cruciate ligament in the 12th inning of Friday’s win.
While fielding a ball against the Wolverines, Leto’s knee popped, and the junior lay on the ground in pain for several minutes.
“It appeared to look like we were talking about whether she was coming out or not. It wasn’t the case at all,” coach Drohan said. “She kept saying to me, ‘I should have had that ball, I could have had that ball.’ I said, ‘I don’t think you could have had her, Carri.'”
Leto sparked the Cats’ offense with her speed and aggressive base running all season, and she was the glue of the Cats’ defense.
Sheila McCorkle started at second base for Leto in the three remaining games of the tournament. The freshman is a reserve center fielder and has primarily seen action this season as a pinch runner. She had practiced at second base only three times since the fall.
“It was big shoes to fill, but I just worked my ass off so we didn’t get a step behind,” McCorkle said. “Carri is a big part of our team emotionally and physically so I wanted to play tough for her and the rest of my team.”
