Feb. 28, 2010
Box Score
CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. -- No. 23 Northwestern came back twice on No. 5 UCLA Saturday night at the Cathedral City Classic, forcing extra innings before the Bruins put up five in the eighth to defeat the Wildcats, 10-5 (8).
Northwestern falls to 6-8 on the year with the loss while UCLA now is 14-2 with its win.
UCLA scored the game's first run in the top of the second. A leadoff double made her way to third, where with two outs she came home on a chopper that bounced high over Robin Thompson's (Detroit, Mich./Martin Luther King) head at third to Emily Allard (Antioch, Calif./Deer Valley) deep in the hole at short. Allard rifled the ball to first where Adrienne Monka (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Rancho Cucamonga) dug it nicely, but it was too late and the Bruins held a 1-0 lead.
The Bruins put another run on the board in the top of the third against Delaney on a run-scoring double to make it 2-0.
Northwestern got slap singles from Jordan Wheeler (Garden Grove, Calif./Los Alamitos) and Allard in the bottom of the third, but nothing came of the knocks.
In the bottom of the fourth, Monka and Michelle Batts (Bloomingdale, Ill./Glenbard North) led off with back-to-back singles, with Aly Euler (River Forest, Ill./Oak Park River Forest) taking Monka's spot on the base paths. Emily Haug (Jefferson City, Mo./Helias) then put a grounder into the hole at short, but despite shading that direction the fielder booted it to load the bases on the error. Lauren Ackerman (St. Louis, Mo./Home schooled) trotted to second to run for Batts at that point.
UCLA starter Megan Langenfeld then got a pop out and a strikeout before running a full count to Wheeler, who laced the next pitch over the shortstops head to plate both Euler and Ackerman and knot the game, 2-2, going into the fifth.
The Bruins struck right back with a full-count, two-out run-scoring hit of their own in the top of the fifth, this one a three-run home run to make it 5-2 in favor of UCLA.
Northwestern sprinkled a little three-run magic powder of its own in the bottom half of the fifth. Allard led off with a single, then two outs later Batts worked a walk. Haug then fought her way to a 2-2 count -- including a foul ball home run into the fans on the right field grassy knoll -- before sending one onto the Big League Dreams Wrigley Field version of Sheffield Ave. to again tie the score, 5-5.
The home run was Haug's third of the season and the sixth of her career. Prior to the bomb, UCLA's Langenfeld had surrendered just one earned run the entire season.
The Bruins tried to keep the streak of three-straight half innings with runs scored intact, but Delaney had other ideas. After UCLA put runners at the corners with one out and the infield in, Delaney got a hard grounder that Nicole Pauly (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) lunged to her left to grab at second, holding the runner at third and retiring the batter. Delaney then coaxed a can of corn to Kelly Dyer (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport) in center to end the frame.
Northwestern's sixth was much like its third, with both Wheeler and Allard scoring base hits -- to match each's respective career high for hits in a game -- but no runs came of the situation after UCLA was helped by a pickoff at first.
In the top of the seventh, the Bruins got a leadoff double before that runner moved to third on a wild pitch. The next batter drew a walk before stealing second. Delaney summoned up some serious chutzpa, striking out the next batter, then getting a sharp grounder to third that Thompson stopped for out number two. The next batter flew out to left to keep the game tied going into NU's bats in the seventh.
Northwestern was unable to do anything other than a Batts walk in the seventh, sending the game into international tiebreak play in extra innings. (In ITB, the batter who made the last out in the team's previous offensive inning is placed on second to start their next at-bats).
In the top of the eighth, UCLA sacrificed its runner to third, then a ground out to short kept her there. Delaney then got into a 12-pitch battled that ended in a walk, with things unspooling from that result. First, an RBI single up the middle made it 6-5. A passed ball moved both runners up a base, then back-to-back singles and an error opened the floodgates for the Bruins, making it 10-5.
Delaney (3-4) went 8.0 innings, allowing 10 runs (six earned) on 11 hits and seven walks with eight strikeouts.
Allard and Wheeler both finished the game 3-for-4 at the plate, with Wheeler driving in a pair. Haug knocked in three for NU.
Northwestern returns to action at 1 p.m. CT tomorrow, Sunday, Feb. 28 against UC Davis on getaway day at the Cathedral City Classic.