Not Pretty Yet Highly Effective

Northwestern didn't do it with style, but they swept the Evanston Regional

May 20, 2007

By Andrew Simon

Special to CSTV.com

EVANSTON, Ill. - In the top of the fourth inning of No.2 seed Northwestern's 4-1 victory against Illinois State on Sunday at the Evanston Regional, the Wildcats (48-11) trailed the Redbirds 1-0 but had second baseman Nicole Pauly on third with two outs.

Right fielder Jessica Miller stepped in and looped a soft liner that made it over the glove of third baseman Kara Nelson and landed just in front of diving shortstop Kaprice Williams. Although she fell coming out of the batter's box, Miller still made it to first and Pauly came home to tie the game.

Throughout the Regional, Northwestern won without getting much thunder from its bats, scoring 13 runs in three games. Many of those were aided by walks, hit batters, wild pitches, errors and infield hits.

"I think what you saw out there were pitchers who didn't want to throw the ball over the middle of the plate, so maybe walks were up, hit batters and both staffs were really careful in their approach to the batters," said Northwestern coach Kate Drohan of her teams two games against Illinois State

During Northwestern's three-run fifth inning that was the difference in the game, the Wildcats did hit a few balls hard. Shortstop Tammy Williams bounced a grounder into right field, scoring center fielder Katie Logan, who had doubled off the center field fence. After Illinois State replaced starting pitcher Shannon Nicholson with reliever Stacy Birk and Birk hit first baseman Garland Cooper, Pauly drove in two runs with a single up the middle.

"Facing (Birk) yesterday really helped us today," Pauly said. "Coming in I was just thinking to hit the ball on the ground."

Although Northwestern pitchers consistently put runners on base throughout the Regional, they prevented almost all of those runners from scoring.

Eileen Canney, who appeared in relief Friday and pitched complete games Saturday and Sunday, showed a particular knack for extricating herself from tough spots. She did it against the Redbirds in the fifth inning Saturday, striking out three straight hitters with runners on second and third.

She did it again in the third inning Sunday. With one run already in on center fielder Jackie Williams' fielder's choice grounder to shortstop, the Redbirds were threatening for more, with runners on first and second and nobody out. But after another fielder's choice and a stolen base that put runners on second and third, Canney whiffed second baseman Tiffany Prager and got first baseman Amber Smith to pop out.

"She's a really, really good pitcher," said Smith, who was 0-for-6 with three strikeouts against Canney in the Regional. "She threw the same as she threw yesterday. Her ball moves. She made us chase really good pitches. You can't take any credit away from her at all."

Canney surrendered just three hits, walked two and struck out 11 in the game. In her three Regional appearances, the senior went 2-0 with a save. In 17 innings she recorded a 1.24 ERA, gave up nine hits and struck out 29.

"I definitely feel like I'm in the zone," Canney said. "Even on days when I don't feel like I have my best stuff, it's nice because our defense makes incredible plays, like (Williams' double play in sixth inning) today."

Canney figures to be a huge part of the Wildcats' push toward the Women's College World Series. So does Williams, who broke out of a slump by going 6 for 11 in the Regional.

Cooper, probably the team's biggest offensive weapon, was only 2-for-8 but was walked three times and hit once.

As it heads into a Super Regional against an unfamiliar opponent, Drohan said her team is not concerned about what its opponent is doing. 

"We put a lot of emphasis on playing our game and executing our style of play, so we won't change too much," Drohan said.