Northwestern won the first Big Ten tournament in 1982. This weekend, they won the last.
The No. 12 Wildcats claimed first place in the final installment of the conference tournament. Tournament MVP Lauren Delaney fired shutouts on Thursday against Ohio State, Friday against Minnesota and Saturday against Iowa to help NU (37-13) obtain the crown.
After defeating the Buckeyes 8-0 in five innings, NU advanced to the second round where they faced Minnesota, which played its first round game against Purdue earlier Friday.
The action started off slowly, as it had a day earlier against the Buckeyes. Neither team scored a run in the first inning, and only after the Golden Gophers were set down quietly in the top of the second did the scoring outburst that led to the 12-0 victory get started.
NU relied heavily on a trio of freshmen to bring them the win.
Michelle Batts homered and drove in five runs, while her classmates Kelly Quinn and Robin Thompson contributed from the bottom of the order. Batting seventh and eighth, they combined to reach base safely in five of their six plate appearances and scored each of those times.
“It’s huge because it relieves the top of the order,” Batts said. “It’s just amazing that you can depend on your 6-7-8-9 hitters to get on base every time. I mean when Kelly (Quinn) gets up something’s going to happen.”
The freshmen were crucial to the Cats’ success on Friday, continuing to play beyond their years. Quinn said the underclassmen are treated no differently from the veterans.
“We sort of have a rule on our team that we don’t have different classes,” she said. “Once we started conditioning in the fall, we weren’t freshmen.”
NU advanced to the championship round of the tournament with the win, facing Iowa in the finals. Led by junior starter Brittany Weil, the Hawkeyes kept pace with the Cats through three shutout innings.
That all changed with one swing of the bat.
With two gone in the top of the fourth, junior catcher Erin Dyer entered the batter’s box. Dyer fought Weil through eight pitches, many of which were lined foul, before she sent the ninth pitch over the left field fence. The home run, which landed on Welsh-Ryan Arena, gave the Cats a 1-0 lead.
“This Big Ten season if you really break down the games, it’s amazing how Erin Dyer has been the one to really get things going and come up with the big hit,” coach Kate Drohan said.
Though both teams would threaten to score in the remaining three and a half innings, neither team would find a way to push another runner across the plate.
“Today’s game was fantastic,” Drohan said. “I think both teams were so evenly matched, and the difference was just Erin Dyer’s at-bat.”
Weil allowed four hits and three walks while striking out nine, but it only took one hit to do the damage.
“It was a classic championship game,” Iowa coach Gayle Blevins said. “Many of us that have been around the sport know that’s exactly, a lot of times, how the championships play out. Both pitchers performed extremely well.”
But Delaney was not to be outdueled. She finished the tournament pitching all 17 innings, striking out 24 and scattering five hits and five walks without allowing a run, to take home MVP honors.
Despite winning the conference tournament championship, NU received the No. 11 seed in the NCAA tournament. The Cats will host DePaul, Western Illinois and Drake this weekend in the regionals.
The past two seasons, NU fell one step short of a tournament title, losing in the championship game each year. This time, the Cats’ veterans would not be denied.
“I think especially for some of the older kids – Darcy (Sengewald), me, Tammy (Williams), (Jessica) Rigas, and Gina Gonzalez, I think we really feel the victory,” Dyer said. “For the younger kids they’re just high on life right now, they’re loving it right now.”