Only a few feet separated No. 11 Northwestern from an early exit in the NCAA tournament.
The Evanston Regional came down to an elimination game between the Wildcats and No. 19 DePaul. With Blue Demons on second and third, and the Cats up a single run in the bottom of the seventh inning, the heart of DePaul’s order was due up. Two different hitters slugged potentially game-winning line drives that tailed just foul before making outs to end the Blue Demons’ season.
Few could have guessed that the final day of the region’s double-elimination tournament would come down to such dramatics. NU defeated Western Illinois 6-0 on Friday and dropped DePaul by the same score the following day, bringing the Blue Demons to within one loss of elimination. With the wins, sophomore ace Lauren Delaney had pitched five consecutive shutouts dating back to the start of the Big Ten tournament.
Sunday’s first matchup between DePaul and NU began the same way. The Cats were up 2-0 after four innings behind a Tammy Williams home run and more scoreless innings from Delaney.
But Blue Demons’ catcher Jackie Tarulli-Fisher finally got to Delaney, ending her run of 39 straight scoreless innings with a two-run single in the fifth.
“I thought (Saturday) she pitched the perfect game for her,” DePaul coach Eugene Lenti said of Delaney. “Obviously Lauren wasn’t as sharp (Sunday) as she was Saturday. That really was the key. We didn’t really make a whole lot of adjustments.”
Blue Demons pitcher Becca Heteniak both started the game and hit the game-winning single in the top of the seventh before returning to the mound to record the save in the bottom half of the inning. With the win, DePaul forced a second meeting between the two teams to determine who would go on to face No. 6 Arizona State in the Super Regional round next weekend.
Once again NU took a 2-0 lead into the fifth thanks to a Williams round-tripper. In the top half of the fifth, freshman Jordan Wheeler tacked on an RBI single to extend the lead to three.
DePaul answered with two runs of its own in the bottom of the inning before threatening in the seventh. With runners on second and third and no one out, NU was fortunate to escape unscathed.
Delaney recorded a strikeout for the first out, then threw out the Blue Demons’ Alex Morocco, who was attempting to score on a comebacker. NU’s ace struck out Tarulli-Fisher for the final out.
“I just really appreciate our composure with a runner on third and no outs in that last inning,” coach Kate Drohan said. “That out from Lauren Delaney was key, it was a very athletic play at the plate … and she took care of business from there.”
Though Delaney certainly did not pitch her best games of the season in the split doubleheader, she was not solely to blame. The Cats’ defense made two errors in each game, and the offense was unable to come up with the timely hitting it has relied on all year.
But NU found a way to survive.
“We didn’t have our best stuff today. I mean this was just some of the worst softball we played in months,” Drohan said. “Still, Lauren Delaney got some really big outs when the season was on the line, and that’s the sign of a true champion right there.”
——–View photos from this weekend’s sports events here.
