April 15, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill. -- No. 17 Northwestern knows how to celebrate Senior Day. Last season, the Wildcats blasted a school-record six home runs in their Senior Day contest. On Saturday, NU launched three balls over the fence in an 11-1 drubbing of Indiana.
Although there are more home games to be played, the Wildcats designated Saturday's contest as its official Senior Day honoring Kristen Amegin (West Sacramento, Calif./Elk Grove), Ashley Crane (Sammamish, Wash./Eastlake), Jamie Dotson (Santa Ana, Calif./Foothill), Courtnay Foster (Tucson, Ariz./Sahuaro) and Sheila McCorkle (Costa Mesa, Calif./Mater Dei).
Northwestern's win moves it to 28-10 overall on the year and 8-2 in the Big Ten. Indiana falls to 20-19-1 with the loss, 3-7 in the conference.
In the top of the fourth inning, the Wildcats began the Senior Day scoring. Freshman Tammy Williams (El Dorado Springs, Mo./Osceola) led off with line-shot single back up the middle that nearly put a hole through Indiana starter Megan Roark. Williams then stole second, but it would not matter when junior Garland Cooper (Mission Viejo, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic) tattooed a soaring home run over the stairway tube on McGaw Hall for a 2-0 Northwestern lead.
The blast was Cooper's sixth of the season, and gave her 308 career total bases -- tying her with Erin Mobley (2002-05) for the Northwestern career record.
Dotson followed Cooper with a walk, then moved up a base when freshman Erin Dyer (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport) singled to left. Crane advanced both runners with a groundout before sophomore Darcy Sengewald (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln Way East) drove home both runners with a single into left-center for a 4-0 Wildcat advantage.
In the top of the fifth, Cooper laced a two-out double down the left-field line. The two-bagger gave her 17 on the year, breaking her own NU single-season record of 16 set last year and giving her the school's career total bases record all to herself.
Dotson followed with a blast off the fence in right for a double of her own to plate Cooper and give Northwestern a 5-0 lead.
Indiana scored its first run of the series in the bottom half of the sixth when Mariangee Bogado hit a leadoff home run to slim the Northwestern lead to four, 5-1.
In the top of the seventh, junior Katie Logan (Tempe, Ariz./Corona del Sol) nearly notched her first-career home run, lining a double off the top of the left-field fence to lead off the frame. McCorkle then hit a bunt single to advance Logan to third before stealing second herself to put runners on second and third with no outs.
Williams stepped the plate and clubbed her team-leading ninth home run of the season over the batting cages beyond center field to make the score 8-1 in favor of the 'Cats, still with no outs in the inning. And the frame was not over yet.
Cooper singled through the left side for her third hit of the game, and was lifted for pinch runner Gina Gonzalez (LaVerne, Calif./Bonita). Dotson followed with a walk and then Amegin celebrated Senior Day with the 33rd home run of her career to push the NU lead to 10, 11-1.
Foster improved to 15-5 on the year with her complete-game effort. She struck out a season-best 14 batters, allowing one run on three hits with one walk. She struck out the side three times in the game.
Cooper finished the contest a triple short of the cycle, going 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs. For the second-consecutive game, Williams homered and drove in three runs while scoring twice. Logan collected two hits, Dotson ended up 1-for-1 with an RBI and two runs scored, and Amegin drove in a trio. Sengewald contributed two RBIs to the Wildcats' cause.
Northwestern returns to action at noon CT tomorrow, Sunday, April 16 with a doubleheader against Purdue at Sharon J. Drysdale Field.