Last season Northwestern ripped off a 14-game winning streak to begin its Big Ten schedule. NU avoided Ohio State in the process when its two games against the Buckeyes were cancelled due to bad weather.
With a six-game Big Ten winning streak still alive this season, the No. 15 Wildcats met the Buckeyes for a doubleheader at Buckeye Field in Columbus, Ohio, on Sunday afternoon.
This time around, it was Ohio State, not the elements, who rained on the NU parade. In two hotly-contested battles, the Buckeyes (24-14, 6-2 in Big Ten play) topped the Cats (25-10, 6-2) by scores of 2-1 and 3-2.
“We always try to do our best,” junior pitcher Eileen Canney said. “I think our team has better hitters, but it just didn’t go our way.”
Coach Kate Drohan declined to comment about Sunday’s games.
The first part of the weekend was equally as nail-biting but significantly more satisfying for NU, as it pulled out 1-0 and 3-1 victories against Penn State (21-11, 1-7) on Friday and Saturday.
Friday’s classic pitcher’s duel between Canney and Penn State senior Missy Beseres entered the seventh inning with no score.
NU sophomore third baseman Darcy Sengewald led off, looking to get something started for her team. Sengewald thought she did just that, taking a 3-1 pitch and beginning to move towards first on an apparent walk. But the pitch was called a strike, forcing Sengewald to step back in against Beseres.
“I knew I had a full count, so if it wasn’t a strike I wasn’t going to swing at it,” Sengewald said. “But I was just looking for a good pitch to hit. I wasn’t looking for the walk.”
On the next pitch, Sengewald got what she was looking for and drilled her first homer of the season, providing the go-ahead run in the Cats’ victory.
The following day, NU wasted no time in getting its big hit when senior designated player Kristen Amegin crushed her team-leading seventh homer with two runners on to give the Cats a 3-0 lead in the first inning. That was more than enough for NU senior Courtnay Foster, who gave up just one run to earn the victory.
“I came to the plate ready to hit,” Amegin said. “I was looking for the inside pitch because they’d been throwing me there a lot lately. I was expecting it and I just turned on it.”
Sunday was a different story for the Cats, as the team failed to capitalize in key situations. With the score tied at one in the top of the seventh of the first game against Ohio State, NU loaded the bases with nobody out and the top of the order due up. But the Cats struck out three times in a row to end the inning without breaking the tie.
The Cats paid immediately for their inability to drive in runs when Buckeyes’ senior center fielder Chelsea Baker led off the bottom of the inning with a walk-off homer against Canney.
NU jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning of the second game, but Ohio State used runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to surpass the Cats and earn the sweep.
“We got a little over-aggressive and felt the pressure too much within ourselves,” Amegin said. “I think our effort was there. We just didn’t execute today.”
Reach Andrew Simon at [email protected].
