AND is in her DNA: Morgan Newport has filled every role Northwestern softball has asked of her

Northwestern’s second home game of the 2021 season had turned into a slugfest. The Wildcats led 13-7 in the top of the fourth inning, but Wisconsin’s bats had put pressure on NU’s pitchers all day. And after freshman starter Lauren Boyd reached 90 pitches before completing the fourth, coach Kate Drohan made a call to the bullpen.

So, in came the right fielder.

Come again?

But Morgan Newport was no ordinary right fielder. The fifth-year senior had been a key part of the Cats’ pitching staff as an underclassman before shifting to the outfield her junior year. Although her time in the circle had become limited, she was always ready at a moment’s notice. And on this Saturday afternoon, Newport did a little of everything.

She was 4-for-4 in the first game of the doubleheader including a two-run home run, and after entering the circle, she allowed just one hit the rest of the way as NU won 15-7. Then in the second game, Newport threw a complete-game shutout and also opened the scoring with a solo homer in a 4-0 Cats victory.

“When the game asks you to do multiple things, it’s kind of nice,” Newport said. “I love being able to pitch and play outfield and hit because doing the same thing over and over again, it’s not as fun. I love being able to contribute to the team in a lot of different ways.”

That day in late March epitomized Newport’s versatility, and she has put everything together during her final season. But it took a while for her to get to this point, and in each year of her career, she’s had a different primary role.

2017: Bullpen stopper

Newport starred on both sides of the ball in high school and with her club team in DeKalb, Illinois. But she was a pitcher first and foremost during her first two seasons in Evanston — the first left-hander NU had since Kate Drohan and her twin sister, associate head coach Caryl Drohan, took over in 2002.

She pitched primarily in relief as a freshman, when the Cats got off to a 1-10 start and never fully recovered, finishing with a sub-.500 record. But pitching coach Michelle Gascoigne, herself a lefty and a big part of Oklahoma’s 2013 national championship team, said the experience Newport gained that year was critical for her future success.

“She’s always had a really good mentality, just doing whatever the team asked her for,” Gascoigne said. “As a freshman, she wasn’t afraid to speak up or ask questions and that has gone a long way for her.”

Newport logged 83.2 innings in 2017, compiling a 3.85 ERA, and hit just .194 in limited at-bats. Former NU catcher Sammy Nettling was a calming force for Newport in her first two years, helping her put mistakes behind her and quickly move on.

“Every single out that you make, every single error you make in the field, it just seems really big your first couple of years,” Nettling said. “Getting her to take a deep breath, we’re all going to make mistakes and it’s a very long season, that was something I tried to instill with her.”

2018: Key rotation piece

Newport was expected to play a similar role as a sophomore. After all, the Cats had five pitchers on their staff and didn’t figure to need her much.

But then Kaley Winegarner tore her ACL, Kenzie Ellis left the program for personal reasons and Nicole Bond was just ineffective. That left Newport and then-freshman Kenna Wilkey to carry the staff for the final three months of the season.

So Newport played a huge part in NU’s resurgence — the Cats’ 38 wins that season were their most in 10 years. She threw a shutout in early March against No. 11 Alabama that kick-started a 10-game winning streak, struck out a career-best nine batters in a key win at Wisconsin and threw a five-inning no-hitter in the Big Ten Tournament semifinal against Michigan State.

“We relied on her heavily,” Kate Drohan said. “Each year she gained more and more responsibility. Every time the game or our team asked something of her, she stepped up.”

NU returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2018, playing in the Athens, Georgia Regional. There, Newport faced a new kind of adversity — illegal pitches. Essentially, pitchers cannot have both feet off the ground during their delivery; otherwise, an illegal pitch will be called, with the penalty of a ball on the batter.

Newport and Wilkey were breaking this rule that weekend, but so were the pitchers from their opponents, California and Georgia, and so do the majority of pitchers nationwide. For whatever reason, though, the umpires focused on the Cats’ duo during the Regional, forcing Newport to sometimes get batters out two or three times.

She and NU fought through it all to beat Cal twice and advance to the Regional final before losing to the host and No. 7 seed Bulldogs.

“It was frustrating and mentally draining on all of us,” Gascoigne said. “I was in it with her, every pitch she threw. I was feeling that frustration alongside her. She was a warrior through that. She really hung in there. It’s something that you’re not normally asked to do.”

2019-20: To the outfield

Regardless of whether the illegal pitch drama was a factor, Newport found herself pitching less as a junior. But she was in the lineup for every game but one as the primary right fielder. Drohan said the motive was to get her more at-bats, and in 2019 she made her most progress as a hitter.

Just as it did this year, Newport’s best game of the 2019 regular season came in the first game of a home doubleheader against Wisconsin. On April 13, she hit a two-run homer in the first inning to give the Cats the lead, then came in from the outfield to pitch in the fifth, holding the Badgers hitless for the last 2.1 innings to help NU to an 8-5 win.

“Being in the outfield has been really great for me because I’m kind of an adrenaline junkie,” Newport said. “That’s why I love the closer role. Being in the outfield allows me to feel that adrenaline and the momentum of the game even when I’m not in the circle. So it actually really helps me to transition.”

Newport’s services weren’t required much from the circle thanks mostly to then-freshman Danielle Williams, who threw more than half of the Cats’ innings en route to NFCA National Freshman of the Year honors. But Newport rebounded from an offensive slump to help NU win an NCAA Regional on its home field and advance to its first Super Regional since 2008.

She went 8-for-16 that weekend, including a 4-for-4 performance in a late-night elimination game against Southern Illinois. Newport then hit a key two-run double in the Regional final the next day as the Cats defeated Louisville to move on.

“The thing with Newport is she’s always been a streaky hitter,” Drohan said. “She figures it out. Even when she gets out, she’s in the dugout getting ready for her next at-bat. But there was a real will to make it happen in 2019. That’s what’s fun to coach.”

Newport was mainly an outfielder again in the shortened 2020 season, appearing just four times as a pitcher. She had her moments offensively, though, most notably a go-ahead grand slam against Long Beach State.

But when the COVID-19 pandemic ended the season abruptly, Newport knew she didn’t want to be finished. As a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, she advocated for spring-sport athletes to get an extra year of eligibility, which they were granted on March 30 of that year.

“The day after our season got canceled, Kate called me and said, ‘will you come to my office?’” Newport said. “We’re both still dry-eyed from all the crying we’d done the day before. What I admire so much about Kate is she’d already turned the page. She was like, ‘okay, what are we going to do next?’ It was the easiest no-brainer for me. I just felt so unfinished with the game.”

2021: The grand finale

NU is on the NCAA Tournament bubble entering the final weekend of the regular season, but had Newport not returned, the Cats might not be anywhere near the postseason. She has improved all facets of her game this year, but especially her power.

Newport’s eight home runs in 2021 lead the team and are more than in her previous four seasons combined, and she is currently second in the Big Ten with 32 RBIs.

“I’ve always been really obsessed with mechanics and how it all works,” Newport said. “But this year, I feel like I’ve taken my game to a new level in understanding my swing. And that helps me with making adjustments quicker. It’s really impacted how I’m able to respond and my overall mental toughness.”

She’s provided clutch moment after clutch moment, from a go-ahead two-run triple when NU was down to its last strike in mid-March against Ohio State to a two-out walk-off home run earlier this month against Illinois — the program she’d initially been committed to before switching shortly before signing day. In the circle, Newport went more than 24 innings before giving up an earned run.

This weekend’s series against Nebraska will be her last time playing at Sharon J. Drysdale Field, but Newport said she feels she’s leaving the game in a better place and with a sense of peace. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in sports administration and wants to stay involved with college athletics in some capacity.

“She’s been a part of our program during a really pivotal time. I can say without hesitation that it’s because of her that we’ve been able to do this build,” Drohan said. “Her fingerprints are all over it. We’re really honored that she chose us.”

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @bxrosenberg

Related Stories:

— Softball: Northwestern splits series against in-state rival Illinois in Evanston

— Softball: Northwestern softball wins three elimination games en route to NCAA Super Regionals

— Softball: Balance, versatility fuel Wildcats to sweep of No. 25 Wisconsin