Three weeks into the Big Ten season, the Northwestern softballteam’s goals looked to be slowly going up in flames. But theWildcats found a fire extinguisher over the past weekend and noware on fire themselves.
With lofty goals of winning Big Ten and national championships,the Wildcats were light-years away from those accomplishments andhad a below .500 Big Ten record heading into last weekend.
Tied for fifth in the conference, NU needed four wins againstOhio State and Penn State. If the Cats had faltered at all lastweek, they could have jeopardized their chances of reaching the BigTen tournament.
When the weekend ended, NU (24-13, 7-5 Big Ten) had survivedoutscoring its opponents 16-7 on the way to sweeping the entireweekend.
“Our coaches told us last week we needed to win all four games,and we did that,” senior second baseman Carri Leto said. “Coach(Kate Drohan) was joking with us today and said, ‘If it’s thateasy, we’ll just tell you win four games every weekend.'”
The emergence of clutch hitting is what allowed NU to climb to atie with Minnesota for fourth in the Big Ten and stay on a six-gamewinning streak.
The Cats now are hitting the ball harder than a 5-foot-8 minorleaguer on steroids.
Until the Penn State game last Friday, NU hitters had providedlittle run support for their pitchers — especially sophomoreCourtnay Foster (11-11).
Even though she was averaging just fewer than nine strikeoutsper seven innings of work, Foster held a 8-11 record after losingto Illinois on April 11. For a second-team All-Big Ten selection in2003, Foster’s record was evidence of a possible sophomorejynx.
But starting with a nonconference game against Loyola on April13, the Cats’ sticks started to come around as Foster continued tobe a force in the circle. NU scored six runs on the Ramblers whileFoster gave up three runs, none of which were earned, and struckout eight batters.
She also pitched a two-hit shutout at Penn State on April 17,and picked up another victory and a save in a doubleheader at OhioState on April 18, en route to her second Big Ten Player of theWeek award of the season.
“I feel like I’m getting some confidence back,” Foster said.”I’m building on a good pace and a good rhythm the past weekend,and I want to keep improving.”
But while Foster’s record was dipping at the start of conferenceplay, freshman pitcher Eileen Canney (13-2) raked in two Big Tenshutouts, against Minnesota and Wisconsin, two weeks ago. Canneyleads NU with seven shutouts.
“Eileen Canney has really, really done a great job for us in thecircle,” Drohan said. “She’s in control, she’s mature, she wantsthe ball in competitive situations, so I am really happy with her,and the command of the pitches she has at this point.”
With pitching — the team’s strength — and offense improving,fielding and defense have become points of emphasis for theCats.
The defense committed five errors in the second game of thedoubleheader at Ohio State, and remains one of the team’sweaknesses.
“We’ve made some mistakes on balls that are hit in front of us,and that is frustrating to see,” Drohan said. “We’re better thanthat, so we challenged them today in practice, and they’ll havesome opportunities this weekend to improve on that.”
NU’s opportunities come in the form of Purdue (27-19, 2-8) andIndiana (26-25, 2-8), who will visit the Cats’ Sharon J. DrysdaleField for two games each.
But the marquee matchup may come next weekend, as No. 8 Michigan(40-7, 11-1) comes to town for a doubleheader on May 2.
Drohan said she is not allowing her players to look aheadbecause every game matters in the Big Ten, and the Cats need fourmore conference victories this weekend.
“I told the team that they’ll prove their toughness more thisweekend than next weekend,” she said. “No way are we lookingahead.”
