Northwestern pitcher Courtnay Foster is no stranger to longoutings.

In the NU softball team’s opening-round game at the Big Tentournament last season, Foster threw 310 pitches during afour-hour-and-55-minute, 18-inning ballgame against MichiganState.

For a baseball player, the feat is nearly impossible, but for asoftball player, the situation is entirely realistic.

Foster dueled it out with Michigan State’s Jessica Beech in theepic showdown. Neither team scored a run until the 18th inning,when in the top half of the frame, catcher J.C. Kira singled in arun for the Wildcats. With two runners on and two outs in thebottom of the 18th, Foster struck out Michigan State senior LacyHauxhurst to give NU a 1-0 victory.

The fourth seeded Cats (31-17, 12-8 Big Ten) head into theirfirst-round game against No. 5 Minnesota (33-22, 10-10) today atthe Big Ten tournament in Ann Arbor, Mich. Memories of thatmarathon battle against the Spartans have resurfaced for NU coachKate Drohan.

“I think it was a great matchup between (Foster) and Beech,”Drohan said. “I kept Courtnay in because she was really mentallytough and she wanted it. I thought she was just as effective in the18th inning as she was in the first.”

Softball pitchers’ throwing motion and mechanics allow them tothrow hundreds of pitches in one game. Pitching the ball underhandis a much more natural motion and puts less stress on the arm thanbaseball’s overhand throwing motion, NU baseball athletic trainerDerrick Brown said.

“Pitching in softball does not stress the shoulder and elbowlike a baseball pitch,” he said. “In softball you don’t see as manyligament and labrum tears in the shoulder like in baseball.”

Since the arm motion doesn’t lead to injuries, conditioning andproper mechanics become the first line of defense to preventinginjuries in softball. Strength in the abdomen and hips, along withlower body flexibility, are the recipe for staying healthy andlasting through an extra-inning game, Brown said.

Some possible arm injuries are tears to the rotator cuff orbicep tendon and muscle pulls in the forearm, similar to shinsplints, Foster said.

“Injuries in softball you can generalize as ‘freak’ because themotion is so natural,” the sophomore said. “But as long as you keepyour arm strong, you shouldn’t have any problems.

“A lot of injuries are pitcher-specific depending on the waydifferent pitchers throw the ball. If you’re a pitcher that bendsyour elbow when you pitch, you’re more prone to have elbowproblems.”

Softball pitchers also ice their shoulders after pitching toward off injuries, Foster said.

So far in their college careers, Foster and Canney have notsuffered any arm injuries.

Like baseball coaches, Drohan still has to worry about pitchingsubstitutions and balancing her rotation, but not because of armfatigue.

“Pitching in softball is different than baseball because yourarm doesn’t get tired,” Drohan said. “But you still have to worryabout their mental fatigue, along with their general physicalfatigue.”

To work on their strength and conditioning, the pitchers performseparate workouts from the rest of the team and do distance runningduring practice while the other players hit, Drohan said.

“We do that to keep their legs ready and strong, and that kindof endurance training is what they need to throw a complete game,”she said. “A lot of the times, the first thing to go in a softballpitcher are her legs, and that’s when you see them overthrowingwith their upper body.”

In all contests, Drohan said, she demands a commitment from herpitchers to last an entire game, whether it goes into extra inningsor not.

Foster displayed her concentration in the circle in last year’s18-inning shutout and recently in a 10-inning shutout of DePaul onMay 5.

“I expect them to be really tired after a complete game,” Drohansaid. “(Canney) and Courtnay have done a good job this year stayingfocused. We’ve challenged Courtnay to get back to that edge thisyear.”

In addition to the obvious throwing methods and mechanicsdifferences between softball and baseball, the pitches thrown alsovary. Pitches in baseball can only “break” in a downward motion,whereas softball pitches can move in any direction, includingupward.

“In softball you can make the ball break on any plane you want,”said Lauren Schwendimann, an NU assistant coach and former Catspitcher. “If you can think of any direction, you can make it breakthat way.”

Fastballs, changeups, rise balls, drop balls, curveballs andscrewballs are some of the many pitches thrown in softball.Schwendimann said a college pitcher’s fastball tops out in the low60s. But with the mound only 43 feet from the batter, a 65-mphpitch in softball is the equivalent of an upper-90s fastball inbaseball, Foster said. The fastball usually is a baseball pitcher’sbackbone pitch, but Foster said softball players don’t really throwfastballs.

“We try and make it so that all our pitches move,” Fostersaid.

Breaking balls, which typically are the same speed as fastballs,and off-speed pitches, which ideally are 15-20 mph slower thanfastballs, make up some hurlers’ entire repertoire, Schwendimannsaid.

The way to throw each pitch in softball is in the grip, just asit is in baseball. The release point also changes slightly for somepitches, but a pitcher’s grip on the softball is the maindifference between pitches.

“You have to use the seams on the ball, and you want the ball tospin a certain way for each pitch,” Canney said. “For a drop ball,you want a four-seam rotation, rotating down. For a rise ball, youwant the ball spinning up.”

Softball pitchers throw an average of four or five differentpitches in a game, Schwendimann said.

The usual limit for the total number of pitches a hurler canthrow in one game is 300-plus. But even that line can beblurred.

“(Throwing) 400 or 500 pitches is possible,” Foster said. “But Iwould say if you’re throwing three times in a weekend, that’s toomuch.”