SOFTBALL
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — They may have done it the hard way, but the Wildcats advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals with two wins over Notre Dame on Sunday.
Northwestern started the double-elimination, four-team regional with a 6-1 victory over Albany on Friday but then dropped a 3-2 game to Notre Dame on Saturday afternoon despite a furious seventh-inning comeback attempt.
After moving to the losers’ bracket, NU responded with an 8-2 victory over Louisville on Saturday evening, which put them in the championship matchup with Notre Dame, needing two victories Sunday to advance.
The Cats now move on to face local rival DePaul on Friday and Saturday. The winner of the best-of-three series will move on to the eight-team College World Series.
“Just today alone, our ability to come through the losers’ bracket and beat a very, very good Notre Dame team in two exciting games, you know it’s really exciting to see our program take the next step,” coach Kate Drohan said. “I’m really excited for the girls, they’ve worked really hard. We’ll enjoy this win today.”
The Cats defeated Notre Dame 4-1 in the first game behind sophomore Eileen Canney’s two-hitter and back-to-back home runs from juniors Kristin Amegin and Sheila McCorkle. Canney gave up a run to the first batter of the game, but gave up just one hit after the first and struck out six.
NU had a slow start to the second game of the Sunday championship doubleheader with the Fighting Irish. Starting pitcher Courtnay Foster gave up a double off of the left-field wall to start the game, and Notre Dame took the lead just two batters later on an RBI single to left field.
The score was 1-0 until the bottom of the third inning. Sophomore Katie Logan led the inning off by drawing a walk and bringing fresh Stephanie Churchwell to the plate.
Kate Drohan and associate head coach Caryl Drohan had a short conference with Churchwell and on the very first pitch, Churchwell drove a two-run home run just over the wall in left-center field.
“Caryl and I have that same conference before practice,” Kate Drohan said. “I want to practice bunting, (but) she says ‘No, no, just let them hit.’ And that’s basically what she said at that moment. And I said ‘You know what Churchie, you’ve got the first couple of pitches here. Be aggressive. If you get the one you like, hit it hard.’
“And she did just that. I’m going to give my assistant coach all the credit for that one.”
Senior Erin Mobley’s fourth-inning double gave the Cats a 4-1 lead, but after Foster struggled to get outs in the top of the fifth, Canney entered the game in relief. A sacrifice fly to center scored one for Notre Dame, but NU escaped the inning with a two-run lead.
In the top of the sixth, however, Notre Dame catcher Mallorie Lenn started the inning with a solo shot to deep center field to pull the Irish to within one. Canney got out of the inning with no other damage, but when NU was unable to put up any insurance runs in the bottom of the inning, it put pressure on the defense to shut Notre Dame down in the seventh for the win.
With the bases loaded and two outs, sophomore pitcher Eileen Canney got Notre Dame’s third baseman Liz Hartman to ground out to Churchwell, giving NU the 4-3 victory and putting them just two wins away from the College World Series.
“I basically just wanted to get her to make contact because I knew that our team was on top of it,” Canney said. “I knew that no matter where she hit it, we could make the play.”
Reach Paul Tenorio at [email protected].
