Northwestern now is 14-19 on the season after its loss while Notre Dame runs its current winning streak to seven games and improves to 18-10 on the year with its win.
Notre Dame jumped out to a huge early advantage, turning a pair of Northwestern errors into a five-run first helped in part by an RBI double and two-run home run. All five runs in the frame were unearned.
In the top of the second, sophomore Marisa Bast (Orange, Calif./Villa Park) led off with a bomb over the fence in center to make the score 5-1. The shot was her team-leading ninth of the year and the 14th of her career. The Irish answered back, however, in the bottom of the frame. After two leadoff singles and a sacrifice bunt, freshman Amy Letourneau (Laguna Niguel, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic) entered the circle in relief of starter Meghan Lamberth (Wildwood, Mo./Lafayette). The next batter reached out to single to center before Letourneau got a strikeout and catcher Paige Tonz (Peoria, Ariz./Centennial) threw out a stealing runner to end the frame with the score 7-1.
The Irish loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the third, but Letourneau came back from a 3-1 count on the final batter to freeze her with two-straight pitches, ending the inning with a backwards K. Northwestern pounded the ball in the top of the fourth, but the end result was three-consecutive deep and high fly ball outs and no Wildcats' runs.
Notre Dame added one more to its tally in the bottom of the fourth with a two-out RBI single, then got its two leadoff batters in the fifth aboard. Sammy Albanese (Belmont, Calif./Castilleja) entered the circle in relief at that point, but two more Northwestern errors brought the game-ending run home.
Lamberth (7-9) went 1.1 innings in the start, allowing seven runs (two earned) on five hits and no walks with a strikeout. Letourneau threw 2.2 innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on four hits and five walks with four strikeouts.
Northwestern returns to Big Ten action with a home series this weekend versus Iowa. The two teams first face off in a noon CT doubleheader Saturday, April 7, that will air live on the Big Ten Network. Sunday's finale gets underway at 1 p.m. CT.
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