BYU improves to 3-3 on the year with its win while Northwestern now is 2-5 following its loss. The Cougars and Wildcats split a pair of games at the 2014 NCAA Seattle Regional, with NU winning the second to advance to the Regional Championship round for the sixth time in the last 10 years.
Northwestern faces host UNLV tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 14, at 5:45 p.m. CT/3:45 p.m. PT.
Northwestern had a batter reach in every inning, including a leadoff runner in each of the first three innings. Each time early on, BYU pitcher McKenna Bull countered to keep the Wildcats off the scoreboard and the game scoreless.
Meanwhile, Wood did not allow a single Cougar to reach base against her until a leadoff walk in the fifth inning. She immediately responded by mowing down the next three batters to keep the game scoreless entering the sixth.
In the sixth, junior Amy Letourneau (Laguna Niguel, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic) singled to give the Wildcats their fourth leadoff runner of the game. Freshman Marissa Panko (Naperville, Ill./Benet Academy) entered to run and moved to second on a Brianna LeBeau (Worth, Ill./H.L. Richards) sacrifice bunt. Then, with Andrea Filler (Fort Wayne, Ind./Bishop Dwenger) at the plate, a ball bounded by the catcher for a passed ball to put Panko on third. Filler took advantage and lifted a fly ball to center field deep enough for Panko to race home for a 1-0 Northwestern lead.
BYU, however, finally got to Wood in the sixth. After the NU junior struck out the first batter, the Cougars recorded their first six base hits of the game, including four in a row, to take a 5-1 lead to the seventh.
Senior Olivia Duehr (Antioch, Ill./Antioch) drew a two-out, pinch-hit walk in the seventh inning, but that was all for NU.
Wood (1-2) took the loss in 6.0 innings, allowing five runs on six hits and a walk with four strikeouts.
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