Northwestern (13-10, 2-0) and Penn State (13-14, 0-2) conclude their three-game series at noon CT/1 p.m. ET tomorrow, Sunday, March 22, at Beard Field. NU now has won six-consecutive games and 10 of its last 11 contests.
The Wildcats entered Saturday's doubleheader with 17 home runs on the season, and they proceeded to hit nine more combined across the two games. NU's 18 hits matched its school record achieved a few weeks ago on March 8 in a victory at Louisville.
After Northwestern scored in all five innings of Saturday's first contest, the Wildcats got on the board right away in the first inning of the second. Freshman Sabrina Rabin (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles North) began the frame with a double past the third-base bag and remained at second with two outs when Amy Letourneau (Laguna Niguel, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic) drew a walk. Senior Julia Kuhn (Middletown, N.J./Middletown South) then stepped in and drove a double to the wall in left center to give NU a 1-0 lead.
The Nittany Lions put together their first real threat of the doubleheader Saturday when they loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the first against Letourneau. Then, on a full-count pitch, the batter hit a squirrely liner toward short that bounced and moved sideways, but Andrea Filler (Fort Wayne, Ind./Bishop Dwenger) was all over it to make the awkward appear cool, ending the threat with NU still on top.
Northwestern's offense went from warp speed to whatever speed is faster than that in the second. Anna Edwards (La Canada, Calif./La Canada) reached base on an error to lead off the frame, then the Wildcats' lumber took over from there. Duehr roped a two-run home run to left field, then, after Rabin reached on an infield single, Andrea DiPrima (Arlington Heights, Ill./Buffalo Grove) followed with a soaring home run of her own to dead center.
Filler made it back-to-back #B1GCats jacks with a solo shot for NU's third home run of the second inning, capping an outburst that thrust the Wildcats into a 6-0 lead. DiPrima's blast was her second of the day while it was her fourth of 2015 and the eighth of her career. Finally, Filler's home run was her fifth of the year and the 19th of her college days.
Penn State loaded the bases again in the bottom of the second, this time with one out. While the Nittany Lions were able to scratch one run across, NU limited the damage to remain ahead by five, 6-1, and enable another monster rally in the third.
Sophomore Alcy Bush (Riverside, Calif./Martin Luther King) nearly joined the home run-fest when she led off the top of the third with a double off the top of the wall in center. Then, Duehr went interstellar, uncorking a soaring two-run home run for her second blast of the game and her third of the day to put NU on top, 8-1.
Duehr entered Saturday with 15 career home runs; she exits with 18.
The third inning rally was not done yet. Penn State inserted Christy Von Pusch into the circle in relief of starter Marlaina Laubach, and Von Pusch promptly walked Rabin and DiPrima on eight-straight pitches. Letourneau then drove both in with a double to get the game into run-rule territory, 10-1.
Penn State responded with a big inning of its own in the bottom half, plating three runs to cut NU's lead down to six runs, 10-4, after three complete innings of play. PSU then held NU scoreless in the top of the fourth, marking the first time in NINE innings Saturday that the Nittany Lions held the Wildcats scoreless.
The first two batters to the plate in the bottom of the fourth reached, prompting head coach Kate Drohan to put Game One winner Kristen Wood (Trevor, Wis./Wilmot Union) into the circle in relief. Wood struck out the side, but a two-out single in the midst of the Ks brought another PSU run home to make the score 10-5.
Following a scoreless fifth, Northwestern tacked on two more runs in the top of the sixth via a two-out Filler single that plated Sammy Nettling (Tucson, Ariz./Corona del Sol) and Duehr, re-extending NU's cushion to 12-5.
In the seventh, Northwestern put the finishing touches on its 23-run day with a Rabin single to left that scored pinch runner Marissa Panko (Naperville, Ill./Benet Academy) and accounted for the final 13-5 score.
Letourneau went 3.0 innings in the start, allowing five runs on 10 hits and five walks with three strikeouts. Wood (6-3) earned the win in relief, throwing 4.0 scoreless frames while allowing two hits and a walk with seven strikeouts.
Duehr had a monster day, going 2-for-3 with four RBIs and three runs scored on two homers and two walks. Letourneau was a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate with two RBIs while Rabin had three runs and three hits, Filler drove in three and DiPrima had two RBIs and two runs scored. Both Kuhn and Nettling finished with two hits apiece.
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