Feb. 17, 2010
Northwestern's Louisville Slugger Desert Classic Game Notes (PDF Format) 
EVANSTON, Ill. -- No. 21 Northwestern travels to Las Vegas, Nev., this weekend, Feb. 19-21, for the 15-team Louisville Slugger Desert Classic hosted by UNLV.
The Wildcats have a strong recent history in the event, going 4-1 during appearances in 2006, 2007 and 2009. Northwestern faces a challenging slate of opponents in the 2010 installment of the tournament, beginning at 1:15 p.m. CT Friday, Feb. 19, against No. 10 Georgia Tech and continuing with a 5:45 p.m. CT Friday contest with No. 13 Oklahoma. Both of those games will take place at Stephanie Lynn Craig Park in Henderson, Nev. (1725 Galleria Dr.)
On Saturday, Northwestern takes on No. 12 California before playing host UNLV that night, with both of those games happening at Eller Media Stadium on UNLV's campus in Las Vegas. The Wildcats conclude the event Sunday against Utah, again at SLC Park.
Junior Michelle Batts enters this weekend after the best tournament of her career at the season-opening Kajikawa Classic. Batts hit .438 while clubbing a Big Ten-best five home runs and driving in a conference-leading 10 runs at the tourney.
Despite a 1-2 record at the Kajikawa, senior pitcher Lauren Delaney also put together a very strong start to 2010. In 21.1 innings of work, Delaney surrendered only three base hits for an .046 opponent's batting average. She tossed the seventh no-hitter of her career in her first outing against Cal State Fullerton and fanned 30 on the weekend, giving her 995 strikeouts for her career to officially put her on milestone watch in her next start in the circle.
NU's freshman class put together some good debuts last weekend. Emily Allard -- a converted outfielder -- played a very confident shortstop while batting .278 in her first collegiate tournament. Pitcher Meghan Lamberth earned a save with 3.0 scoreless innings of relief in the Wildcats' first game of the year against Cal State Northridge.
For Northwestern's complete game notes package for this weekend's Louisville Slugger Desert Classic, download the .pdf at the top of this page.
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