This weekend Northwestern will play a best-two-out-of-three series against DePaul, with the winner going to the College World Series.
If the Wildcats (42-16, 15-3) pick up two victories, they will make their first trip to the World Series since 1986.
But if that doesn’t make the weekend important enough, NU will be facing Chicago-area rival DePaul (43-19), which the Cats beat 2-1 earlier this year.
This marks the first time two Chicagoland teams have met each other this deep into the NCAA tournament.
“It’s just amazing that we’re facing each other this weekend, being from the same city,” sophomore first baseman Garland Cooper said. “It’s really going to be great (playing in Chicago). We have a lot of support from our school and from our families, and there is going to be a lot of people coming in from the city, and it’s going to be crazy.”
The Cats will face DePaul at Illinois-Chicago’s Flames Field at 3 p.m. today and at 5 p.m. Saturday. A third game will be played immediately following the 5 p.m. game Saturday if needed.
For NU to win, it will need to continue using the same formula for success it has followed all year long — great pitching and a potent offense.
But the offense has seemed sporadic at times recently. The Cats registered several runs against Albany and Louisville last weekend in the NCAA regionals but struggled to move runners in their first game against Notre Dame as well as at the Big Ten tournament two weeks ago.
In order to succeed, the Cats will also need catcher Jamie Dotson to end her slump.
The junior cleanup hitter, who broke the school record for RBIs in a season, has not registered a hit in seven games since the Big Ten regular-season finale against Michigan on May 8. Drohan recently experimented with putting junior Kristen Amegin in the No. 4 spot in the order.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am with both Kristen and Dottie’s week in practice,” Drohan said. “A slump is a mental thing, and I think Dottie is in a very good mental state of mind as Kristen was when Kristen broke out of her slump earlier this year.”
The Cats’ pitching is less of a concern.
Sophomore pitcher Eileen Canney hit near-perfect form last weekend against Notre Dame and junior Courtnay Foster says she feels great heading into the weekend.
“I think it’s pretty obvious that pitching is one of the most important aspects of softball, and I think that Leenie and I have been fortunate that we have one another to pick each other up when we have an off game,” Foster said. “I think it’s going to be extremely important for Leenie and I to throw well this weekend, especially if we want to take the first two games, and that’s what we want to do.”
Reach Paul Tenorio at [email protected].
