Northwestern (28-20) advances to the Big Ten Tournament semifinal round for the first time since winning the conference tournament in 2008, the last season it was held before a four-year hiatus. NU will face the winner between No. 1 Michigan and No. 9 Penn State in a Saturday semifinal at 2:30 p.m. CT/3:30 p.m. ET, with the winner of that contest advancing to Saturday night's 7:30 p.m. CT/8:30 p.m. ET championship game.
Purdue falls to 31-25 on the year with its loss in Friday's quarterfinal. The Boilermakers defeated No. 5 seed Illinois, 3-2, in an opening round game Thursday while the Wildcats had a bye through to the quarterfinals by virtue of their No. 4 seed.
Wood, who fanned 27 Boilermakers in 15.0 innings pitched in the teams' three-game set in Evanston this year to be named Big Ten Pitcher of the Week, picked up right where she left off with a pair of strikeouts in a scoreless top of the first, setting the stage for NU to take the game's first lead in the bottom half.
On the very first pitch she saw from Purdue ace Lilly Fecho, Big Ten Freshman of the Year Sabrina Rabin (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles North) singled to left. She quickly stole second and moved to third when Andrea DiPrima (Arlington Heights, Ill./Buffalo Grove) had a productive groundout. Andrea Filler (Fort Wayne, Ind./Bishop Dwenger) brought Rabin home with a strategic single for a 1-0 Wildcats' lead on the junior's 60th RBI of the 2015 season.
Later, with two outs and runners at first and second thanks to a Sammy Nettling (Tucson, Ariz./Canyon del Oro) walk, Amy Letourneau (Laguna Niguel, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic) lifted a texas-leaguer to left-center that fell just beyond the grasp of the shortstop racing out for an RBI double and a 2-0 Northwestern advantage.
Purdue went down in order on just eight pitches in the top of the second, but rallied in the third to load the bases with two outs on a single and two walks. Wood got the next batter to fly out lazily to center on the very first pitch to keep the Boilermakers off the board.
Fecho settled down after facing eight #B1GCats batters in the bottom of the first to retire the next 10 in a row, including five-straight via strikeouts to get through the third and fourth innings. While keeping NU at bay, Purdue loaded the bases with no outs on two walks and an error in the top of the fifth. The next batter hit a fly ball to Olivia Duehr (Antioch, Ill./Antioch) in left field, and Duehr fired a perfect strike to Nettling behind the plate to nail the tagging runner for a monumental double play that helped kill the rally with no damage done.
Northwestern seized on that momentum for its first base runners since the first, adding to its total in the process. Brooke Marquez (Garden Grove, Calif./Pacifica), who was robbed of a hit by a diving centerfielder in her first at bat, got a leadoff single in the bottom of the fifth on another line drive to center. Krista Williams (Pleasanton, Calif./Amador Valley) entered to run for her, and moved to second when Rabin beat out a bunt single. A perfectly executed DiPrima sacrifice moved both runners up a bag before Nettling ripped a sacrifice fly to right center for a 3-0 Northwestern lead.
In the top of the seventh, Wood went 1-2-3 through the Purdue order, notching her sixth and final strikeout of the game complete her fifth shutout of the year. Wood improved to 16-9 on the year with the win, allowing no runs on three hits and four walks with six strikeouts.
Rabin was the lone Wildcat with two hits in the game, though Nettling had a walk and a sacrifice fly.
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