April 28, 2007
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Freshman Nicole Pauly (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) hit a go-ahead, two-run home run in the fifth inning and senior Eileen Canney fanned 11 in a 2-1 Northwestern victory over Iowa Saturday afternoon at Sharon J. Drysdale Field.
The win pushed the Wildcats to a 39-10 overall record, 13-3 in the Big Ten. Iowa falls to 34-20 with the loss, 9-7 in the conference.
Iowa grabbed the first lead of the game in the bottom of the second inning. A one-out single and stolen base put a runner on second with two outs, then a towering pop fly into right field swirled around in the wind and fooled the Wildcats' fielders, falling in for a double to give the Hawkeyes a 1-0 lead.
After putting runners on base in every inning of the game, Northwestern finally broke through in the top of the fifth. With two outs in the frame, senior Garland Cooper (Mission Viejo, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic) laser-beamed a single back into center field. Freshman Aly Euler (River Forest, Ill./Oak Park River Forest) replaced Cooper at first.
Pauly then drove her eighth home run of the season over the fence in left field to thrust Northwestern into the lead, 2-1. The blast was her second of the series after she deposited a solo shot over the fence in right on Friday.
Canney was fantastic in the game after surrendering the run in the second inning. She picked up the win to move to 23-8 on the season, allowing five hits and a walk to go along with her 11 Ks. Canney now has 1,017 career strikeouts to move past former teammate Courtnay Foster into second place on NU's career list. Three-time All-American Lisa Ishikawa holds the Wildcats' career mark with 1,200, which was the NCAA's all-time record in 1987 at the time of Ishikawa's graduation.
Canney entered the weekend ranked 43rd in NCAA Division I history with 8.7 strikeouts per seven innings in her career. Her 23 wins on the year rank eighth in NU single-season annals.
Cooper finished the game 3-for-3 with a double, two singles and an intentional walk. The intentional pass was her eighth of the season and the 28th of her career; she ranks fifth in NCAA Division I history in the category.
Senior Katie Logan (Tempe, Ariz./Corona del Sol) had a pair of hits for the 'Cats in the game.
Northwestern returns to action at noon CT tomorrow, Sunday, April 29, with a doubleheader against Illinois. The games will mark the Wildcats' final conference contests of 2007, with NU reaching the bye in its schedule during the final series of Big Ten play next weekend.