March 3, 2010
Northwestern's DeMarini Invitational Game Notes (PDF Format) 
2010 DeMarini Invitational Tournament Central
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern flies west for the fourth-consecutive weekend March 5-7 to take part in the 10-team DeMarini Invitational hosted by Cal State Fullerton. The Wildcats last appeared in the tournament in 2007, winning the then-Worth Invitational with a perfect 5-0 record.
The Wildcats begin the weekend Friday with an 11 a.m. CT game versus North Carolina before facing Oregon State immediately after. On Saturday, Northwestern plays UC Davis and No. 10 Stanford in back-to-back games starting at 5:45 p.m. CT. NU concludes the event at 1:15 p.m. CT Sunday with Pacific.
All five of the Wildcats' games will take place at the main stadium at Fullerton's softball complex, Anderson Family Field.
Northwestern and UC Davis also tentatively are scheduled to complete their game from Sunday, Feb. 28, at the Cathedral City Classic that was suspended with the Wildcats on top 7-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning. The timing of the completion still is being worked out with the DeMarini tournament staff.
In addition, prior to and after Saturday's games, Wildcat alums, family and fans will be hosting a large tailgate at the Fullerton softball complex.
The Wildcats are quite familiar with three of their DeMarini opponents, having played Pacific, Stanford and UC Davis last weekend in Cathedral City. NU lost to Pacific, 4-2, defeated the 10th-ranked Cardinal, 4-0, and still are in the middle of the aforementioned game against UC Davis. Due to the incomplete nature of that game, season and career single-game highs and Northwestern's overall statistics in this release do not reflect what already has happened.
Following the DeMarini Invitational, Northwestern will take a weekend off to take winter quarter finals before resuming the season March 19-21 at Missouri in a tourney also called the DeMarini Invitational.
PLAY OF THE TOURNAMENT
Junior Jordan Wheeler (Garden Grove, Calif./Los Alamitos) made what Graham Hays of ESPN.com called the "Best Defensive Play" last weekend at the Cathedral City Classic, robbing No. 10 Stanford's Alissa Haber of a leadoff home run in an eventual 4-0 shutout of the Cardinal. The picture of the catch with this release was captured on film by Sara Euler, parent of NU senior Aly Euler (River Forest, Ill./Oak Park River Forest). Read about the play by clicking here.
Become a Northwestern Softball Fan on Facebook!