By Philip Rossman-ReichThe Daily Northwestern
For the second straight day, No. 2 Northwestern faced an early deficit against Illinois State. But the experienced Wildcats didn’t falter under pressure in the NCAA Tournament.
In the fourth inning, right fielder Jessica Miller hit a short line drive down the third-base line that bounced off shortstop Kaprice Williams’ glove. Freshman Nicole Pauly scored to tie the game 1-1, and Miller just beat the throw to first base, despite falling down.
The Cats didn’t trip in the following inning as they scored three runs and won the Evanston Regional at Sharon J. Drysdale Field with a 4-1 victory, advancing to the NCAA Tournament Super Regional for the third year in a row.
“In that moment, especially this game, I don’t think any of us even felt tension,” Miller said. “We’ve just worked through that to learn to stay calm and have confidence in one another and trust that we can all get through it.”
The Redbirds (44-17-1) put runners on first and third after scoring the first run of the game, continuing to threaten the Cats (48-11) with one out in the third inning. But senior pitcher Eileen Canney recorded a strikeout and fly out to end the inning.
“I definitely feel like I’m in the zone,” Canney said. “Even on days I feel like I don’t have my best stuff, it’s nice because our team can make incredible plays. Illinois State is one of the best hitting teams we’ve ever played. They’re incredible and I think they were constantly fighting this weekend.”
Canney faced another runner at third with two outs in the fourth inning after giving up a leadoff double and forcing a ground out to second, but she struck out designated player Stacy Birk to end the inning and preserve the tie.
NU proceeded to score three runs in the top of the next inning on an RBI single by Tammy Williams and a two-run double by Pauly.
The Cats also put themselves in an early hole in their Saturday meeting with the Redbirds.
Trailing by one run in the fourth inning, junior Darcy Sengewald and senior Katie Logan each hit RBI singles for NU. Illinois State committed two errors as NU pushed ahead.
The Redbirds nearly answered in the following inning, hitting a single and a double to put runners at second and third with nobody out.
But Canney struck out the next three hitters – the final two looking – and NU escaped with a 5-2 victory.
“I think that in the difficult times like with runners on, you have to dig down deep and find everything in you that you’ve worked for and worked on and really use your hard work for that moment,” Canney said. “I didn’t want them to come back and score because my offense was backing me up. They are a great hitting team and I knew I had to make the outs.”
Entering the game the two teams had combined for 160 home runs. But neither team was able to send one out of the park in the two games.
“Some people would call it a little uncharacteristic of us (playing small ball),” coach Kate Drohan said. “Coming out of the Big Ten tournament, we’ve talked a lot about advancing runners with outs. I still think they’re digging in at times and swinging hard too. I don’t think we’ve left the long ball. I think right now we have a good balance.”
NU advanced to the NCAA Tournament Super Regional and will face South Carolina in a best two-out-of-three series in Evanston to determine who advances to the Women’s College World Series.
“It’s really exciting to get back to the regionals and get into super regionals,” Williams said. “This is the first step toward the World Series.”
Reach Philip Rossman-Reich at [email protected].
