April 24, 2011
Box Score
Site: Evanston, Ill. (Drysdale Field)
Score: Northwestern 12, Ohio State 2 (5)
Records: NU (22-13, 4-6 Big Ten), Ohio State (11-29, 2-10 Big Ten)
Next NU Event: April 25, 2011 -- at UIC (Chicago, Ill.), 6:30 p.m.
EVANSTON, Ill. -- For the second-straight day, Northwestern hung a snowman on Ohio State in the fourth inning to blast itself to a 12-2, five-inning run rule victory over the Buckeyes Sunday at Sharon J. Drysdale Field.
Northwestern improves to 22-13 overall with its win, 4-6 in the Big Ten. Ohio State now is 11-29 on the season, 2-10 in the conference with its loss.
After scoring 14 runs in the two teams' encounter Saturday, Northwestern wasted little time finding home plate Sunday. Emily Allard (Antioch, Calif./Deer Valley) led off with a walk before stealing her 36th base of the year. A passed ball moved Allard to third before Robin Thompson (Detroit, Mich./Martin Luther King) worked a no-out walk of her own. Thompson then stole second, leading to a bases-loading intentional walk from Ohio State starter Karisa Medrano to Adrienne Monka (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Rancho Cucamonga).
Senior Michelle Batts (Bloomingdale, Ill./Glenbard North) drove in the first run of the game with a sacrifice fly to right, bringing Allard home and moving Thompson to third, from whence she scored on a wild pitch to make it a 2-0 score. Marisa Bast (Orange, Calif./Villa Park) reached base when she was hit by a pitch before Kelly Quinn (Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North) recorded the only hit of the frame to again load the bags. Jordan Wheeler (Garden Grove, Calif./Los Alamitos) then hit NU's second sac fly of the inning to bring in Monka and make it a 3-0 game before the first eventually came to an end.
In the circle, freshman Sammy Albanese (Belmont, Calif./Castilleja) allowed a walk but nothing else in each of the first two innings. She ended the second by starting a 1-6-3 twin killing on a stiff comebacker. In the top of the third, Ohio State scored its first runs of the series on a two-out, two-run home run to cut Northwestern's advantage to one, 3-2, on the Buckeyes' first hit of the game.
The Wildcats answered the Buckeyes immediately with a run in the bottom of the third. Quinn drew a leadoff walk before everyone was safe on a fielder's choice grounder off the bat of Wheeler. Freshman Paige Tonz (Peoria, Ariz./Centennial) advanced both runners with a sacrifice bunt before Kristin Scharkey (Yorba Linda, Calif./Esperanza) brought home Quinn with an RBI groundout to extend the NU cushion back to two, 4-2.
Ohio State built a rally in the top of the fourth, using a pair of walks to chase Albanese from the circle in favor of senior Jessica Smith (Encinitas, Calif./La Costa Canyon). The next batter was hit by a pitch to load the bases, then Smith battled through a nine-pitch at-bat before getting a swinging strikeout to end the threat and keep NU up 4-2.
Not content to let the Buckeyes battle, the Wildcats responded to the threat by adding to their run total in a big way. With one out in the bottom of the fourth, OSU walked the dangerous Monka for the third-straight time in the game. Lauren Ackerman (St. Louis, Mo./Lafayette) entered to run for Monka, but all she needed to do was trot when Batts launched a home run off the flag pole in right field for her eighth blast of the season and the 41st of her career. Bast followed Batts with a blast off her bat that was a laser beam over the fence in left -- never really getting more than 10 feet off the ground before embedding itself in the left-field bleachers for back-to-back home runs and a 7-2 NU lead.
Ohio State then replaced Medrano (6-16) in the circle with Kasie Kelly, who walked Quinn, and then was immediately replaced by Audrey Plant. The third OSU pitcher allowed a Wheeler single before walking Tonz, and Plant was subsequently removed as Medrano came back into the circle in the same inning she initially left.
After recording an out, Medrano gave up a two-run single to Allard and an RBI bunt single to Thompson to push the game into run-rule territory, 10-2. Ohio State then brought its centerfielder in to pitch, who promptly gave up a two-run single to Monka to make it a 12-2 game before the inning ended.
Smith worked around a leadoff single in the fifth to close out the game for NU, ending things with a strikeout.
Albanese (7-6) picked up the win, going 3.2 innings of work and allowing two runs on one hit and five walks with two strikeouts. Smith picked up her third save of the year after entering the game when it was 4-2, going 1.1 innings and giving up no runs on a hit with two strikeouts.
Thompson had a 2-for-3 day at the plate with three steals, two runs and an RBI. Allard had two runs, two RBIs and a steal while Batts knocked in a trio and Monka drove in two.
Northwestern returns to action at 6:30 p.m. CT tomorrow night, Monday, April 25, at UIC. The game was rescheduled from a Wednesday, April 20 postponement due to weather-related field issues.
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