Northwestern improves to 2-0 on the season with its victory while UC Santa Barbara now is 0-2. The Wildcats are back on the field at 2:30 p.m. CT/1:30 p.m. MT, Saturday, Feb. 7, for back-to-back games against Texas and No. 2 Oregon.
Northwestern jumped all over UC Santa Barbara in the top of the first inning, beginning when freshman Sabrina Rabin (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles North) slapped a leadoff single. She was called out on a steal attempt, making Andrea DiPrima's (Arlington Heights, Ill./Buffalo Grove) ensuing mash job over the fence in dead center a solo shot for a 1-0 NU lead.
Amy Letourneau (Laguna Niguel, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic) greeted the bases-empty situation with a double, then Brianna LeBeau (Worth, Ill./H.L. Richards) was hit by a pitch and Anna Edwards (La Canada, Calif./La Canada) drew a walk to load the bases. Junior Caylor Arnold (Mt. Gilead, Ohio/Mt. Gilead) followed with a two-run single back up the middle before Andrea Filler (Fort Wayne, Ind./Bishop Dwenger) smoked a three-run home run over the fence for a 6-0 NU lead on the 15th homer of her career.
NU restarted the rally once more when freshman Brooke Marquez (Garden Grove, Calif./Pacifica) was hit by a pitch and Krista Williams (Pleasanton, Calif./Amador Valley) reached on an error. When Rabin loaded the bases again on her second single, UCSB lifted starter Lena Mayer for Alex Pingree, who took a loss against Texas earlier in the day during a 15-0 loss for the Gauchos.
DiPrima greeted Mayer with a frozen rope single to right that drove home Marquez and Williams and pushed the game into run-rule territory already, 8-0, before the top of the first came to a close.
Northwestern starter Kristen Wood (Trevor, Wis./Wilmot Union) made no waste of her cushion, quickly retiring the UCSB side in order before the Wildcats got back to work in the second. Filler, Marquez and Williams reached on a single, error, single combination before, with two outs, DiPrima and Letourneau both earned walks to force Wildcats across the plate and make NU's lead double digits, 10-0.
UCSB got a two-out double in the bottom of the second before Marquez made a nifty play at second base to end any threat. The Gauchos then elected to send their third pitcher of the game to the circle in the form of Ashley Ludlow. The new hurler nearly kept NU off the board, but the Wildcats still managed to scratch out another score. Arnold drew a walk and gave way to freshman pinch runner Abbey Boyd (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier). Boyd moved to second on a wild pitch, third on an Aubrie May (La Mesa, Calif./Grossmont) pinch hit single and then scored when a Williams grounder was mishandled for an error.
UCSB got on the board in the bottom of the third on a pair of one-out singles followed by a two-run double against Wood, cutting NU's lead to 11-2, but the junior bounced back to fan the side in the bottom of the fourth.
With the run-rule margin still intact in the fifth, Northwestern added two more to its tally. Arnold reached on an error before Marquez was hit by a pitch for the third time in the game. Both runners moved up on a Williams groundout before a Fran Strub (Coralville, Iowa/Clear Creek Amana) infield single brought Arnold across. Freshman Marissa Panko (Naperville, Ill./Benet Academy) then drew a four-pitch walk to force Marquez home and make the score 13-2.
UCSB rallied again in the fifth, loading the bases with one out before getting a two-run double to cut its deficit to 13-4.
DiPrima led NU's offensive attack with a 2-for-2 day at the plate, driving in four. Filler was 2-for-2 with three RBIs, Marquez scored three runs, Arnold had two RBIs and two runs scored and Rabin racked up a pair of hits.
Impressively, despite scoring 13 runs, NU still left the bases loaded four times in the shortened game.
Wood (1-0) went the distance, allowing four runs on seven hits and a walk with seven strikeouts.
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