Feb. 25, 2007
CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. -- Freshman Kelly Dyer (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport) hit the first two home runs of her career Saturday night against No. 2 Arizona State at the Palm Springs Classic, the second of which was a seventh-inning grand slam to propel No. 7 Northwestern past the Sun Devils, 5-2.
With the Wildcats trailing, 2-1, in the top of the final inning, sophomore Erin Dyer (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport) led off with a single to shortstop. Senior Jessica Miller (Elberfeld, Ind./Techumseh) then drew a walk to put runners on first and second with no outs. Freshman Ashley Lafever (Bettendorf, Iowa/Pleasant Valley) replaced Erin Dyer at second and classmate Julia Sears (Chicago, Ill./Marist) ran for Miller at first.
Sophomore Jessica Rigas (River Forest, Ill./Oak Park River Forest) then was hit by the first pitch out of ASU All-American Katie Burkhart's hand to load the bases for Kelly Dyer, who launched a soaring drive deep over the left-center field fence to clear the bases and give the 'Cats a 5-2 lead.
Senior Eileen Canney (Paradise, Calif./Paradise) closed down the Sun Devils from there, striking out the side in the bottom half of the frame to seal the victory for Northwestern (10-4, 4-0 in Palm Springs) and hand Arizona State (16-1, 3-1 in Palm Springs) its first loss of the season.
Northwestern began the scoring in the top of third inning when Kelly Dyer led off with a solo home run deep over the center-field fence off of Burkhart. The blast was the first of Kelly Dyer's career.
Interestingly, it was NU's second first-career homer on the day after Rigas hit hers in NU's win over Cal Poly earlier Saturday afternoon.
Arizona State immediately tied the game in the bottom of the third. Jessica Mapes singled hard to third, then stole second base. She still was there two outs later when a single into the outfield was bobbled allowing her to round third and score to knot the contest, 1-1.
The Sun Devils were able to cash in another two-out RBI in the bottom of the sixth. With a runner on second after a single and a stolen base, Mindy Cowles lined a pitch to the fence in right field to give ASU its first lead of the game, 2-1.
Kelly Dyer is the first Wildcat to hit two home runs in a game since Tammy Williams (Roscoe, Ill./Osceola) clobbered two on April 20, 2006, against Loyola. Williams twice hit two homers in a game last year, while senior Garland Cooper (Mission Viejo, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic) did it once in 2006 as well.
Canney improved to 4-4 with the win, allowing two runs (one earned) on seven hits and two walks with 11 strikeouts. Burkhart (8-1) was tagged with her first loss of the season for ASU, allowing five runs on six hits with two walks and 13 Ks. Entering Saturday's game, Burkhart had allowed just five earned runs all season in 50.1 innings pitched.
In addition to Kelly Dyer's two-hit day, junior Darcy Sengewald (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln Way East) also had a pair of base knocks for the Wildcats.
Northwestern returns to action at 11 a.m. CT Sunday, Feb. 25, against No. 12 UCLA.