April 23, 2006
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- In Northwestern's longest regular-season game in 23 years, the No. 16 Wildcats defeated the Golden Gophers of Minnesota, 4-3, in an 18-inning contest that saw NU pitcher Eileen Canney (Paradise, Calif./Paradise) tie the NCAA Division I record for strikeouts in a single game.
The junior fanned 28 batters in the contest, matching Baylor's Cristin Vitek for the record. Vitek fanned 28 in a 16-inning game against North Carolina on May 20, 2004.
The game was Northwestern's second extra-inning affair of the year and its longest game since an 18-inning marathon against Michigan State in the 2003 Big Ten Tournament. The contest was the Wildcats' longest during regular-season play since an 18-inning, 2-1 win over the Gophers on April 24, 1983.
Canney's final line in the game was three runs -- two earned -- on five hits and four walks with 28 strikeouts. She improved to 15-5 on the season.
Canney's previous career-high of 17 K's came in a seven-inning win at Hawaii on March 20 of this season. Canney ranked 12th in the nation with 11.1 strikeouts per seven innings entering the contest.
She now has 249 strikeouts on the year, jumping three-time All-American Lisa Ishikawa's 230-K performance in 1986 for fifth on Northwestern's single-season list.
In addition to her strikeout feat, Canney did something almost equally as impressive: She came out in the bottom of the 18th and showed she still had some gas, causing a pop up to third base that snapped the bat in half for the first out of the inning -- incredible considering softball is played with aluminum bats and because she already had pitched the equivilant of two-and-a-half games at that point.
With the win, Northwestern improves to 32-10 overall on the season, 10-2 in the Big Ten. Minnesota falls to 12-28, 1-14.
Minnesota struck first in the bottom of the first inning. With two outs, the Gophers loaded the bases on two walks and a hit batter, then a bounding ball down the third-base line glanced off sophomore Darcy Sengewald's (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln Way East) lunging, back-handed stab to score a pair.
The Wildcats answered back in the top half of the second, mimicking what the Gophers did in the previous half-inning. Senior Kristen Amegin (West Sacramento, Calif./Elk Grove), freshman Erin Dyer (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport) and senior Ashley Crane (Sammamish, Wash./Eastlake) all drew walks to load the bases with one gone. Freshman Ann Schraufnagel (Oak Park, Ill./Oak Park River Forest) replaced Amegin as the lead runner.
With two outs in the inning, junior Katie Logan (Tempe, Ariz./Corona del Sol) lined a single through the left side to score Schraufnagel and cut Minnesota's lead to one, 2-1.
Northwestern tied the game up in the fifth inning. Freshman Tammy Williams (El Dorado Springs, Mo./Osceola) drew a leadoff walk, then stole second base. Junior Garland Cooper (Mission Viejo, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic) drove home Williams with a rocket double to the wall in right field -- her second two-bagger of the game -- to knot the score, 2-2.
Cooper, who last year set Northwestern's single-season record for doubles with 16, now has 20 in 2006.
After the hit, senior Jamie Dotson (Santa Ana, Calif./Foothill) did her job to advance Cooper to third with a productive groundout. With one out, Amegin crushed a ball to Megan Arns at first. Arns thrust her glove down and backhanded the one-hopper, but was knocked backwards by its force. She recovered in time to tag first for the second out of the inning, and Minnesota escaped the frame with no further damage.
After the first inning, Canney bore down in the circle. She did not allow another hit or base runner until there were two outs in the seventh, and at one point struck out six-consecutive batters from the third to the fifth innings.
In the top of the seventh, Williams led off with two-strike single into left, then advanced to second when Cooper was issued a five-pitch walk. Dotson executed a perfect sacrifice bunt to advanced Williams to third and Cooper to second. The Gophers then elected to intentionally walk Amegin to load the bases with one out.
After a force out on a groundball to third eliminated Williams at the plate, Minnesota starter Katie Dalen got a fly out to right to end the frame still with a 2-2 tie.
Canney continued to pitch lights out, striking out the side in the seventh, whiffing two batters with one foul out in the eighth, fanning the side in the ninth and K'ing two in the tenth to keep the 'Cats in the contest and give her 20 strikeouts in the game.
The last Wildcat to strike out 20 in a game was senior Courtnay Foster (Tucson, Ariz./Sahuaro), who nailed 20 batters in an 18-inning, Big Ten Tournament victory against Michigan State in 2003.
Northwestern mounted rallies in the ninth and 11th innings, putting runners on first and second with no outs, but both times failed to score. The Wildcats stranded 16 runners through the game's first 11 frames.
In the top of the 13th with two outs, Cooper received her third walk of the game before Dotson hit a little flare behind shortstop that Colleen Conway caught Willie Mays-style to prevent a Northwestern threat.
Meanwhile, Canney's strikeouts just kept coming. She fanned her 25th batter to lead off the bottom of the 14th inning, tying her for the third-most strikeouts in a single game in Division I NCAA history.
With one out in the 15th inning, Logan notched a one-out single just over the head of the third baseman. Williams then sent her fourth single of the game back up the middle and through the wickets of Dalen to put runners on first and second for Cooper, who drew her fourth base-on-balls of the game to load the bags for Dotson with one gone.
The Wildcats attempted a squeeze to bring home a run, but it did not work out and Logan was gunned down trying to get back to the bag at third for the second out of the inning. Dotson earned a walk to load the bases again, but a strikeout ended the inning with no NU runs and brought the 'Cats' left-on-base total to 21.
Canney ended the 15th with her 26th strikeout victim of the game to reach the second-highest single-game total in Division I history, briefly tying Amy Kyler (Cleveland State, 1997) and Michele Granger (California, 1993) for the honor. Canney got her 27th whiff to lead off the 16th, still having allowed no runs since the first inning of a game that began four hours earlier.
In the top of the 17th inning, Northwestern finally broke through for the game's first run since the fifth. Sengewald drew a leadoff walk before advancing on a sacrifice by Logan. She was erased at third on a fielder's choice by Williams, who then advanced to second after Cooper got her fifth walk of the game.
With two outs, Dotson laced a single into left field to score Williams and give Northwestern a 3-2 lead.
The relief was short-lived after Meg Higginbotham reached first on an error with one out, then moved to second on a wild pitch. A single through the left side of the infield scored Higginbotham to again tie the score, 3-3.
After allowing the unearned run, Canney fanned the final batter of the inning with runners on first and second to tie the single-game strikeout record of 28.
Instead of 12 innings passing before the Wildcats regained the lead, this time it took just one. Senior Sheila McCorkle (Costa Mesa, Calif./Mater Dei) was hit by a pitch to lead off the 18th before taking second on a sacrifice bunt by Dyer. Crane moved McCorkle to third with a ground out to the right side, then Logan showed impressive conditioning by legging out an 18th-inning infield single to short to score McCorkle and give Northwestern a one-run advantage, 4-3.
Canney concluded the game with a pop out and two ground ball outs to Sengewald at third.
Both teams received an extended standing ovation from the crowd of 380 after the game's conclusion.
Logan finished the game 4-for-9 with two RBIs, while Williams was 4-for-9 with two runs scored. Cooper went 2-for-4 and drew five walks, while Amegin was issued four bases-on-balls.
The longest game in Northwestern history was a 21-inning, 5-4 loss to Southern Illinois-Carbondale in 1979 -- Sharon Drysdale's first year as the program's head coach.