Northwestern had Friday and Saturday off, but the Wildcats still played nearly four games worth of softball over the weekend.
It took the 16th-ranked Cats (33-10, 11-2 in the Big Ten) 25 innings to win both ends of Sunday’s doubleheader at Minnesota (12-29, 1-15).
Junior pitcher Eileen Canney tied an NCAA record for strikeouts in a game during her 18-inning complete game victory in the first contest of the day at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium in Minneapolis, Minn. After taking that first game 4-3, the Cats came from behind to win the second game 4-2.
Canney gave up two runs in the first inning of Game 1, before hurling 15 consecutive shutout frames. Overall, she surrendered three runs on five hits and four walks, while fanning 28 batters to improve to 15-5 this season. The 28 K’s set an NU record and tied Baylor pitcher Cristin Vitek’s NCAA Division I-A record.
“It’s phenomenal,” coach Kate Drohan said. “Eileen Canney kept us in this ball game. She worked quickly and got ahead in the count.”
Drohan said she knew Canney wasn’t going to give up when she whiffed Minnesota’s third, fourth and fifth hitters in a row in the ninth.
In the 17th inning, Drohan asked Canney if she wanted to keep going and received a decisive “yes” in return.
“It got a little difficult,” Canney said. “But it actually wasn’t as bad as you might think. We’ve been training a lot in practice to build up our endurance and stamina. It was tough, but we just had to push through it.”
NU scored runs in the second and fifth innings, but missed several chances to add more before going on an 11-inning scoreless steak. In the process, the Cats left 25 runners on base and got just two of their 12 hits from the bottom six hitters in the order.
One of those came from senior catcher Jamie Dotson, who singled in a run in the 17th inning to give NU a brief 3-2 lead. But Minnesota tied the score in the bottom of the inning on an unearned run stemming from a throwing error by Canney.
NU kept plugging away and put the heat on Minnesota again in the 18th, getting two runners on base with two outs and junior leftfielder Katie Logan stepping in. Logan was 5 for 12 in the doubleheader, but her biggest hit came in this spot, as she drove in the go-ahead run with an infield single.
“I was just trying to stay as calm and as focused as possible,” Logan said. “In that situation, you can’t try too hard and overwork. I just wanted to end the game right there. We’d already played 18 innings and that was enough. I didn’t want to play another inning.”
Canney retired the side in order in the bottom of the frame to put an end to the four hour and 40 minute marathon. The 18-inning game tied a record for the longest in school history and was the longest during the regular season since 1983.
“It was extremely rewarding,” Canney said. “It shows the team can fight through anything.”
The Cats had to battle some adversity again in Game 2, falling behind 2-0 when senior Courtnay Foster surrendered a squeeze bunt and a bases-loaded walk in the fourth. But NU scrambled to pick up four runs in the sixth, due in part to two Golden Gopher errors.
“We put the pressure on the Minnesota defense,” Drohan said. “We hit well and we hit the ball on the ground. People stepped up and got big hits.”
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