Northwestern traveled to College Park, Maryland, squarely on the bubble for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Big Ten Tournament provided one final opportunity for the Wildcats (29-21, 16-8 Big Ten) to make their case. Facing a Penn State squad they swept in a regular season series earlier this year, NU looked poised to bolster their resume before season’s end.
Instead, the higher-seeded ’Cats were ousted after just one game, as the Nittany Lions (33-21, 11-13 Big Ten) came back from an early deficit to win 11-5.
NU ended the regular season strong, winning 12 of its final 13 games, but its mad dash toward at-large contention fell just short of the finish line. The ’Cats did not hear their name called during the NCAA’s selection show Sunday, meaning their season has come to a screeching halt.
Through two innings on Wednesday, that reality looked impossibly far away, as the team put together a pair of frames that followed the same script as their late-season successes.
In the circle, freshman pitcher Marina Mason came out of the gates firing on all cylinders. Mason rang up three Nittany Lions looking and retired another three with some help from the defense, allowing only one runner with a second-inning walk.
At the dish, a few staples of the ’Cats order combined for a similarly dominant outing, each in their own way. Leading off, graduate student second baseman Grace Nieto did what she’s done all year — get on base and make some noise from there. Nieto earned her way aboard with a ten-pitch walk, her 41st of the season, before swiping second after two quick outs threatened to leave her stranded.
While good process, it ended up being for naught. Senior first baseman Kansas Robinson also nabbed a base on balls, and from there NU capitalized on the two-out, two-runner opportunity with senior shortstop Bridget Donahey crushing a ball over the right-center wall.
With the ’Cats back up to bat in the second inning, a lead-off homer from junior left fielder Isabel Cunnea brought the lead to four, pushing the Nittany Lions’ starter out of the game.
After two innings, NU had already forced 54 pitches from its conference foes, throwing just 28 itself. Utilizing a deep rotation all season, Penn State handed the reins to freshman southpaw Brevyn Kellepouris. She held down the fort until the top of the fifth, providing ample opportunity for the Nittany Lions to begin their comeback effort.
With a flair for the dramatic, the team did just that. NU’s ace backed Penn State into a two-out corner with her fourth and fifth strikeouts of the evening, this time both swinging. Combined with contributions from another freshman, this put the Nittany Lions on the board.
Penn State left fielder Breanna Hanik took Mason deep, scoring two with a moon shot to left center. The rally nearly brought in another run as it continued with a double and single in the next two at-bats, but junior catcher Emma Raye shut it down with her arm, hosing a runner trying to steal second to end the third inning.
Nursing a 4-2 lead, the ’Cats continued to give themselves chances to break the game open, with at least two reaching safely in each of the first five innings. But as NU struggled to capitalize on those opportunities, a dangerous Penn State lineup — which set program records in runs scored and home runs — found its rhythm at the plate.
Freshman first baseman Gabby Gradishar went yard in the fourth to knot the score at four, although the ’Cats were able to quickly regain the lead with an RBI groundout from sophomore center fielder Kaylie Avvisato in the bottom half of the inning.
But after Penn State tattooed its third two-run, two-out homer in as many innings, there was no response to be had.
NU had relied on its star in the circle to make it this far — and for good reason. If Mason had any weaknesses in her remarkable freshman campaign, they were her workload and the long ball. Unfortunately for the ’Cats, both reared their heads at the same time.
When she came up again in the sixth inning, Mason had thrown more than 330 pitches in the past five days, having eclipsed the century mark in both weekend starts and through five innings of work. No Nittany Lion hurler had tossed even 50 on the evening, and the three that pitched Wednesday had combined to throw 329 over the same window.
Four pitches into her next frame, Mason was relieved of her duties. Penn State connected on her first offering for a single, and on the third toss of the next at-bat, she surrendered a fourth two-run homer.
Mason is among the Big Ten’s best in the circle, with unanimous selections to the All-Big Ten First Team and All-Freshman Team on Friday. She ranked in the top five among qualified Big Ten pitchers in ERA, strikeouts, complete games, shutouts and batting average against.
Despite those marks, her home run rate allowed — even before the four-bomb outing — has been surprisingly high. Mason limits hits at an elite clip, sporting a conference-best .188 batting average against, but when she has been hit, she gets hit big.
Twenty of the 105 hits she has allowed have been dingers, meaning batters are more likely to see one of their hits go over the fence than get a hit in the first place.
NU attempted to claw its way back from the sudden 8-5 deficit, and even after Mason was pulled, the team showed flashes of its flair for late-game heroics.
Raye, NU’s second All-Big Ten First Team selectee, continued to disrupt Penn State’s plans on the basepaths with her arm, sniffing out a delayed steal attempt to keep two runners put. Despite Raye’s best efforts, both wound up scoring later in the inning.
With the bases loaded, a ground ball hit a Nittany Lion advancing from second before reaching the outfield. The ’Cats challenged the play, as the timing of an interference call could have prevented a run from scoring in addition to tallying a second out, but they received neither the favorable timing nor the call.
Penn State plated another run with an RBI walk before inning’s end, but the long game break seemingly killed both teams’ momentum. The two combined to advance one runner past second in the final three half-innings, with Donahey reaching third with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. But a subsequent flyout officially closed the door, and NU fell 11-5 to Penn State.
The loss was the ’Cats’ first against the Nittany Lions — whom they outscored 38-9 in their regular-season sweep — since 2011, ending a 19-game win streak against their conference foes. The end of that streak and early exit from the tournament came with another consequence of significant weight.
Teetering on the edge of tournament contention, the loss added one more mark to NU’s candidacy that proved too much to overcome. The cardiac ’Cats came tantalizingly close, but ultimately will not get the chance to continue their season with an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
NU was among the first four teams out, meaning its streak of seven consecutive tournament appearances, which had tied the program record, has officially come to an end.
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