softball
Senior weekend didn’t start as planned for Erin Mobley.
First Northwestern dropped its first game to Michigan State, 2-0. Then Mobley started 0 for 2 in the second game on Saturday.
But in the fourth inning, with her family watching and the crowd still buzzing from freshman Stephanie Churchwell’s two-run home run that was driven over the left field fence, Mobley hit the first pitch she saw and sent it to almost the exact same spot as Churchwell for back-to-back home runs and the beginning of a memorable day for the team’s lone senior.
“Honestly, I was running around second base and I was like, ‘Did I just do that?’ ” Mobley said. “I was thrilled and I saw Kate and usually I try to keep my cool and not smile too big and act tough, and I saw Kate and I just couldn’t stop laughing and smiling.”
Mobley hit 3 for 5 with two RBIs and four runs in her final Big Ten regular-season home game, a 14-2 NU win. The outfielder’s home run gave her a career-high five home runs this season, and she also pulled to within nine hits of the NU career hit record. Mobley already holds the record for career runs and total bases.
For the senior’s family, it was exciting to be able to attend Mobley’s senior ceremonies and see such a strong performance from the Wildcats.
“It’s completely odd (to see her career winding down) because it’s defined an important part of her life and it’s defined an important part of our family’s life for so many years,” said the senior’s father, Foster Mobley. “In so many ways we’re ready and in so many ways we’re not.”
Mobley’s 12-year-old sister Maddi Mobley said she was happy to be able to come out to watch her sister play.
“It was really cool because this was the first game we got to come back for, so it meant a lot that she hit a home run,” she said.
But just because it was her Senior Day didn’t mean Mobley escaped some family ribbing. Her father teased the senior about not ever being selected as the Daily Quota when Maddi Mobley’s quote had been in the paper while NU was recruiting the senior four years ago.
In a recruiting story about Erin Mobley, an 8-year-old Maddi Mobley was quoted as telling coach Kate Drohan over the phone, “Oh, she’s going to Northwestern, don’t worry about it.” The quote was selected as the DAILY Quota, which features a quote on the upper-left corner of the sports page every day.
Mobley buckled under the pressure of her father’s heckling.
“What the heck! (Maddi’s quote) was before I was even a freshman,” Mobley said. “(Maddi) is taking over, I don’t know how to compete with that, I try. It’s something I wanted to do before I graduated.
“I didn’t paint the rock, but I wanted a Daily Quota.”
Reach Paul Tenorio at [email protected].
