NU now is 9-10 overall on the season and has won six of its last seven games, including two Sunday at the weather-abbreviated tournament. Louisville falls to 8-6 on the year with its loss. Northwestern is back in action in the Chicagoland area for the first time this season March 14 when it hosts IUPUI in a noon doubleheader at the Ballpark at Rosemont.
Letourneau moved to 6-7 on the season with her three-hitter, which came on the heels of a no-hitter Sunday morning from NU junior Kristen Wood (Trevor, Wis./Wilmot Union). Letourneau fanned six and scattered six walks as well for her sixth-career shutout.
Both teams put together two-out rallies in the first without scoring. For Northwestern in the top half, Andrea Filler (Fort Wayne, Ind./Bishop Dwenger) and Letourneau each had two-out singles before Louisville ended the rally. Then, in the bottom half, the Cardinals got a two-out double followed by a pair of walks to load the bases; Letourneau responded by coaxing a lazy fly out to escape.
Northwestern took the game's first lead in the top of the third by taking advantage of a gifted runner. Andrea DiPrima (Arlington Heights, Ill./Buffalo Grove) struck out swinging to begin the frame, but the third strike squirted through the catcher's legs to the backstop to allow DiPrima to reach. Fran Strub (Coralville, Iowa/Clear Creek Amana) entered to run and quickly moved to second when Filler singled to right. Letourneau then followed with a liner to center to bring Strub scampering around third for a 1-0 NU lead.
The Wildcats would threaten to add to their lead, but the Cardinals turned an opportunistic and well-executed double play to keep NU's lead at a single run.
Letourneau started and ended the bottom of the third with strikeouts before NU added to its total in the fourth. Krista Williams (Pleasanton, Calif./Amador Valley), who entered the game earlier to pinch run for designated player Sammy Nettling (Tucson, Ariz./Corona del Sol), led off with an infield single and moved up when Caylor Arnold (Mt. Gilead, Ohio/Mt. Gilead) had a productive out at the plate. Julia Kuhn (Middletown, N.J./Middletown South) singled up the middle to put Williams on third, then senior Olivia Duehr (Antioch, Ill./Antioch) did her job as a pinch hitter with a fly ball to medium-deep right, allowing Williams to score for a 2-0 Wildcats' edge.
Midway through that rally, Louisville replaced starting pitcher Maryssa Becker with Madi Norman.
Letourneau got stronger as the game went on, striking out the Louisville side in the fourth inning to reach five Ks for the game. She then started another Northwestern rally at the plate with her third single of the contest to lead off the fifth, and this rally got out of hand in a good way. Brianna LeBeau (Worth, Ill./H.L. Richards) followed with a single of her own, and later in the frame those two Wildcats stood at second and third with two outs when the fun began.
The lynchpin play that sprung the rally came from Arnold, who hit a hard comebacker at the pitcher. The pitcher had it glance off her glove to the shortstop, who had to change direction and dive toward third to glove it. She then threw from a three-quarter laying position across the diamond to a first baseman doing the splits, but Arnold hustled the whole way for a run-scoring infield single.
Kuhn took advantage with a moon-shot three-run home run to center field to break the game open. The blast was Kuhn's first of the season and the third of her career. And yet, after the big blast, the #B1GCats were not done manufacturing individual runs. With the bases now empty, Sabrina Rabin (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles North) singled through the right side of the infield and stole second. DiPrima then smoked a single to center to bring the speedy Rabin around to stake NU to a 7-0 lead when the inning came to a close.
In the top of the seventh, NU put the finishes touches on its offensive Picasso. With one out, Kuhn ripped her third hit of the game to left and gave way to pinch runner Marissa Panko (Naperville, Ill./Benet Academy). After Rabin lined out viciously to left, DiPrima notched a two-out single to put runners at the corners. Filler then smashed her fourth hit of the game over the fence in center for a three-run homer, giving her the team lead with four this year.
Not so fast, said Letourneau, who made it back-to-back #B1GCats jacks when she crushed a solo home run of her own off the facing of the scoreboard to break the school record with the Wildcats' 18th hit of the game, this one making the score 11-0.
Filler and Letourneau each led Northwestern at the plate with four-hit days, Filler driving in three and Letourneau knocking in a pair and scoring twice. DiPrima and Kuhn both had three hits apiece with Kuhn bringing home a trio.
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