Northwestern (21-16, 6-5) entered Sunday coming off two heart-breaking losses against a scrappy Iowa (24-16, 4-8) team. But coach Kate Drohan wanted those two recent defeats to quickly become a distant memory.
“We made a lot of mistakes,” Drohan admitted. “We gave them a lot in terms of walks and hit batters. Today was all about controlling what we could control and taking advantage of every opportunity.”
The Wildcats responded to their coach’s message and rallied their way to an 11-3 victory in five innings over the Hawkeyes in Sunday’s finale.
Friday’s game started off well for the Cats as sophomore pitcher Amy Letourneau helped her own cause by hitting a three-run home run in the first to put NU ahead early. But Letourneau and the Cats lost control of the game in the fourth inning as the Hawkeyes scored 9 times and chased Letourneau after 3 1/3 innings. With the score 12-7 in the seventh inning, NU tried to stage a last minute comeback by loading the bases. However, the Hawkeyes escaped with a win thanks to a diving catch in left field.
The Hawkeyes came out swinging in Saturday’s matchup, compiling a 7-run third inning and took a 10-1 lead into the bottom of the fourth. NU errors were a big reason for Iowa’s big inning, and Drohan said Iowa is good at taking advantage of the opposing team’s mistakes.
“We have to give them credit,” Drohan said. “They did a great job of putting pressure on our defense. They did a great job of being aggressive to make the base runners we gave them pay. On the flipside, we did not come up with great pitches in that moment.”
With its back against the wall and the team in need of runs to avoid the mercy rule, NU came out fighting. The Cats scratched and clawed their way to 6 runs in the fifth inning thanks to sophomore shortstop Anna Edwards, who hit her first of two home runs on the day going along with a career-high 6 RBI.
The Cats would tie it up in the bottom of the sixth at 12-12 with run-scoring hits from Edwards, sophomore designated player Andrea DiPrima and freshman second baseman Brianna LeBeau.
However, pitching and defense let down NU in the top of the seventh, committing two errors, which led to 3 runs for the Hawkeyes. Even with Edwards’ second home run of the game in the bottom of the inning, the Cats would come up just short again, losing 15-14.
After struggling in both of her pitching appearances, Letourneau came into Sunday’s game hoping to give NU a much needed conference win. She weaved in and out of trouble in her first couple of innings: At one point, she hit three Iowa batters in one inning to load the bases, which led to Iowa’s first hit and runs in the game.
Edwards continued her hot-hitting weekend with an RBI single in the first, which was part of a four-run inning for NU. Edwards went 6-for-11 on the weekend with 7 RBI.
“I’ve been feeling pretty good and working with Caryl (Drohan) a lot,” Edwards said. “We’ve just been working on not getting too aggressive and staying within myself. When I struggle, I try to do too much and am all over the place. So being confident in myself and knowing that I can hit any pitch if I let it get to me was the key.”
