May 15, 2003
AUSTIN, Texas - It wasn't the prettiest one-hitter that Courtnay Foster (Tucson, Ariz./Sahuaro) will ever throw in her career, but it was effective nonetheless. Foster allowed only one hit while striking out eight, but allowed six walks as Northwestern snuck past Tennessee Tech 2-1 during the opening day of NCAA Regional action.
The Wildcats (36-17) advance to take on sixth-seeded Southwest Texas in the winner's bracket Friday at 2 p.m.; the Bobcats were a 1-0 upset winner over No. 3 seed Arizona State Thursday. The Golden Eagles (41-15) drop into the loser's bracket and will take on ASU in an elimination game Friday at 9 a.m.
Tennessee Tech committed four errors in the contest, but the Wildcats could only push across the two runs. The 'Cats scored first in the bottom of the second.
Robyn Pettinger (Hoffman Estates, Ill./Fremd) led off the inning with a base hit and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Jamie Dotson (Santa Ana, Calif./Foothill). A J.C. Kira (Honolulu, Hawaii/Saint Francis) groundout moved Pettinger up to third before Sheila McCorkle (Costa Mesa, Calif./Foothill) drilled the first offering she saw from TTU pitcher Lori Bayless into the left-center field gap for an RBI single.
NU pushed its lead to 2-0 one inning later, scoring an unearned run. Brett Nakabayashi (Irvine, Calif./Irvine) recorded a leadoff single and moved to second base on Erin Mobley's (Santa Ana, Calif./Foothill) second sacrifice bunt of the game. Two batters later, Pettinger's grounder to short was misplayed by Marianne Novac, allowing Nakabayashi to score from second.
Meanwhile, Foster was in a groove through the opening three innings of play. The freshman struck out seven of the first 10 batters she faced.
However, control problems got Foster into trouble in the fifth inning. After allowing a leadoff walk, Foster gave up her only hit of the contest, a solid single up the middle by Amy Goad. The Golden Eagles got their only run of the game on the next play, thanks to a Northwestern miscue. Novac's sac bunt was fielded by Cindy Muran (Newbury Park, Calif./Newbury Park), but her throw to first was mishandled by McCorkle.
Tech appeared as though it may tie the game or even take the lead, as runners advanced to second and third on the McCorkle error with no one out. But the Wildcats benefited from an unorthodox triple play -- their first of the season -- to avoid disaster.
Lindsay Williams' squeeze bunt was popped up and caught by Kira, who threw to Pettinger at third base which picked off pinch runner Bayless. Pettinger returned the ball to Foster in the pitcher's circle, signaling a stoppage in play; however, Novac attempted to advance to third after Foster had the ball and was called out for illegally attempting to advance a base.
NU had runners at second and third with one away in the bottom of the fifth, but failed to tally a run. Foster allowed a leadoff walk in the sixth, but recorded three straight shutouts to get out of the inning.
She allowed another free pass to start the seventh, but ended up stranding two baserunners. After the walk, a sacrifice bunt moved Kacy Bennett to second. Foster got a pop-up to Muran in foul territory before walking Novac. But Foster got Williams to foul out to Pettinger to end the game.
Northwestern's game with Southwest Texas will be shown on ESPN2 on a tape-delay basis Friday night at 6 p.m. Central.