Hopes were high for a young Northwestern softball squad after it took three games in Tempe, AZ. to start the year to start above .500.
Just as quickly as it started high, NU was dragged back down to earth.
Clearwater, Fla. did not treat the ‘Cats kindly by any means, yielding them only one win over their long four day weekend. After going down quietly to NiJaree Canady and No. 1 Texas Tech, Northwestern dropped its next matchup against UCF on Friday morning. It bounced back on Saturday with a shutout
of Missouri, but ended the weekend with another five-run loss to No. 17 Georgia and an agonizing defeat to No. 8 Texas A&M.
NU’s top two hitters led the way in the Panhandle State. Kelsey Nader’s .412 average across the five games was a team-best, while Grace Nieto followed up, batting .333. Emma Raye reached safely in all five games and upped her slugging to a .640, another Wildcat high. As a team, Northwestern hit .257 in 132 total at-bats while pitching to a 3.85 ERA.
It was an up-and-down weekend for Marina Mason in the circle, with her complete-game shutout against Mizzou being sandwiched between rough outings against UCF and Texas A&M. Signe Dohse appeared the strongest of any Wildcat in the circle, not allowing an earned run in any of her four appearances, which totaled to 8.1 scoreless frames. Riley Grudzielanek saw tougher luck against Georgia, and so did Renae Cunningham against UCF.
Fri., Feb 13 vs. UCF
The Knights of Central Florida (9-3, 0-0 Big 12) didn’t waste any time landing the first punch on Northwestern’s jaw.
Freshman Hildie Dempsey made her first collegiate start for UCF and got through inning one unscathed, getting Nieto to ground out on a full-count pitch before giving up a single to Nader on the very next one. One fielder’s choice and some assistance from Beth Damon behind the plate, throwing out baserunner Kaylie Avvisato on an attempted steal, got her out the circle.
In came Mason, and unlike her freshman counterpart, she didn’t see nearly as much success as Dempsey in her first inning. Aubrey Evans roped a one-out double, and Izzy Mertes drove her in with one of her own to give the Knights an early 1-0 lead.
Tru Medina’s team-leading fourth error of the season opened the floodgates for Sienna Humphreys to connect on an 0-2 pitch and take it over the center field fence, quadrupling UCF’s lead in the first. For the UCF second baseman, it was her third consecutive game with a bomb.
A walk later in the inning forced Kate Drohan out the dugout to pull Mason, putting an abrupt end to the shortest outing of her young career. Cunningham’s number was called to finish the inning.
NU started to chip away in the top of the second, getting its first run on the board via the fielder’s choice. Kansas Robinson was credited with the RBI, driving in Raye, who doubled to lead off the inning.
Northwestern could’ve come away with much more, loading the bases with two outs, but a Nieto ground out stifled the potential rally in its early simmering stages.
Another double from the Knights courtesy of Evans and a walk drawn by Mertes led to their fifth and sixth runs of the contest. Ashleigh Griffin’s single to right drove in Evans, and Humphreys’ sac fly allowed Mertes to cross the plate.
The ‘Cats battled back in the bottom of the second to begin cutting into the five run deficit. With two outs, Raye notched her second hit of the game. Third base struggles continued to be a major problem, as Sammantha Rey’s blunder allowed Medina to reach and advanced both runners a base. Isabel Cunnea knocked them both in to make the score 6-3.
Cunningham went back out to get three outs in four batters, giving Northwestern a prime opportunity to chomp at the lead a bit more. It did so with another fielder’s choice, making it a two run game.
With one out and a runner just 60 feet away, the ‘Cats were sitting pretty with the dangerous bat of Avvisato representing the tying run.
Reliever Isabella Vega had other plans, striking out the sophomore and then punching out Raye to deflate Northwestern in the fourth.
That was all the scoring for the contest. Dohse was stellar in the circle, but so was Vega for UCF. Drohan did all she could to provide a spark for her squad, even pinch-hitting Abby Harvey for Robinson in the fifth.
There wasn’t much she could do. Fate fell on the side of the neighboring school, as the Knights took a 6-4 victory on their Friday trek from Orlando to Clearwater.
Sat., Feb 14 vs. Missouri
Northwestern football offensive coordinator Chip Kelly’s most famous quote reads as such: “I don’t think anybody has a ceiling. Everybody can constantly improve.”
Marina Mason’s start to the season could only be characterized as consistent improvement, continuing to refine her arsenal in the circle. Saturday morning’s performance against a strong Mizzou (4-7, 0-0 SEC) squad, who received two votes in the preseason USA Softball Top 25 polls, was the culmination of said consistent improvement.
Just 24 hours after a demoralizing start against UCF, Mason tossed a two-hit shutout against the Tigers, carrying a no-hitter into the fifth inning.
It took NU three innings to get around to Cierra Harrison, but once it did, it had the senior in a world of trouble. Bridget Donahey, Na
der and Raye all singled while Avvisato sandwiched a single between Nader and Raye’s hits to rake in two runs and force Harrison out of the circle.
Courtney Donahue got Cunnea to foul out and end the inning, but eventually the ‘Cats got their pound of flesh against the Tigers’ reliever as well. A struggling Kansas Robinson found a bloop single to center to bring home pinch runner Grace Minarovic in the sixth.
Mason’s no-hit bid came to an end with two outs in the fifth, as Madison Uptegrove got to her with a single in the inning previous. That did little, if anything, to stop her on Saturday morning. The first-year chugged along, no problem, finishing her career-day for her first collegiate win.
Sat., Feb 14 vs. No. 17 Georgia
The success Mason saw earlier in the day didn’t find the arm of Grudzielanek later in the day, as she started her day with back-to-back 1-2-3 innings against the ranked Georgia Bulldogs (9-2, 0-0 SEC).
She’d work her way out of trouble in the third as well to avoid damage and keep the Bulldogs scoreless.
It was in the fourth, however, where Northwestern’s house of cards came crashing down. After stranding two in the top half of the frame, the. ‘Cats defense wasn’t able to hold firm for any longer. Delani Sullivan led off with a single and advanced to third on a Grudzielanek fielding error against the next batter. Sarah Gordon slugged a three run homer for the ‘Dogs, breaking the game open.
The long ball would strike again with two outs in the inning. Marisa Miller and Emily Digby both found base knocks, Bailey Lindermuth loaded the bases on a fielder’s choice, and Kierstin Roose cleared them with a rocket out to center.
7-0 Georgia in an instant.
The Bulldogs tacked on another in the top of the sixth, thanks to a Gabi Novickas RBI double, to put a bow on a dominant Valentine’s Day victory.
NU did get on the board in the bottom of the sixth with a Medina sac fly and a Robinson two-run single, but that wasn’t nearly enough to topple the large deficit. Georgia shut down Northwestern to end it, 8-3.
Sun., Feb 15 vs. No. 8 Texas A&M
Texas A&M (7-3, 0-0 SEC) was on upset alert Sunday afternoon, when NU found itself up five on the Aggies at the end of the third.
It was smooth sailing for Kate Munnerlyn to start, retiring the first seven Wildcats she faced.
Then, a Donahey walk changed the mood of the entire game. It was the tip of the iceberg that started the biggest rally of the game.
Teagan McCue got the ball rolling for Northwestern in her second career start, beating out a grounder to third for an infield hit. Nieto recorded the first RBI for the ‘Cats with a single of her down to drive in Donahey, and Nader followed suit for NU’s second score.
Munnerlyn was replaced by Sidne Peters in Trisha Ford’s attempt to halt the momentum, but all Texas A&M’s head coach did was add fuel to the fire. Avvisato launched a homer on Peters’ third pitch in relief to cap off the five-run inning.
The Aggies didn’t take long to fight back. Ariel Kowalewski poked a single to right to score Frankie Vrazel, ending Emma Blea’s short but effective start. They got another off reliever Dohse and threatened to tie things up with the tying run at the plate. However, Nieto’s softball IQ came in handy for Northwestern, as her intuition helped her spot a runner trying to take home on an infield hit. She gunned her down.
Northwestern’s offense went quiet the rest of the way, which meant that the result of the contest hinged on its bullpen.
The Aggies once again got at Dohse in the bottom of the fourth on a Kennedy Powell base hit. Drohan turned to Cunningham to help the ‘Cats tighten their grip on their 5-3 lead, and she escaped the fourth unharmed.
The same cannot be said for her in the fifth, as Texas A&M pulled within one on the very first pitch of the fifth, as Micaela Wark sent it over the right field wall. KK Dement’s double forced Northwestern to use its fourth arm of the contest: Marina Mason. The first-year built on the success she saw in her previous appearance by K-ing up the potential tying run twice to wiggle out of treachery.
That didn’t mean that the Aggies were done — by any means. Back-to-back singles set the table for Mya Perez to surge Texas A&M ahead, driving in two on a base hit that’d eventually go down as the game-winner. Northwestern stranded Nader on first in the seventh, capping the brutal collapse that ended its weekend trip to Florida.
Coming up: Razorback Invitational
Northwestern’s next weekend trip brings it to Fayetville, Ark. to take on No. 11 Arkansas and Southeast Missouri State this coming weekend. The ‘Cats take on the ranked Razorbacks three times over the weekend and face the Redhawks twice, with their first game coming against the ladder on Friday, Feb. 20 at 11 a.m. CT.
