April 27, 2007
Evanston, IL – The University of Iowa softball team (34-19, 9-6) was defeated by No. 8 Northwestern (38-10, 12-3) Friday, 5-1. The Hawkeyes out-hit Northwestern, 7-6, but the Wildcats scored all five of their runs off of home runs.
Northwestern grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third with a solo home run off the bat of Darcy Sengewald.
The Wildcats doubled their lead in the bottom of the fourth with another solo home run, this time by Nicole Pauly.
Garland Cooper hit Northwestern’s third long ball in the fifth to give the Wildcats a 5-0 lead. Cooper’s home run scored Kelly Dyer, who singled, and Tammy Williams, who was hit by a pitch.
Iowa cut the Wildcat lead to 5-1 in the top of the sixth. Sophomore Erin Riemersma started the inning with a walk and moved to second base on a ground ball from freshman Taylor Leichsenring. Junior Emily Nichols then tagged a single to right field that scored Riemersma for the first Hawkeye run of the game.
Junior Summer Downs finished a perfect 2-2 while Nichols went 2-3 with an RBI. Sophomore Rachel West, senior Sami Baugh and Riemersma each collected a hit.
Sophomore Brittany Weil took her fifth loss of the season. She threw all six innings and allowed five runs on five hits while striking out seven. Weil retired nine of Northwestern’s first 12 batters before giving up a run.
Iowa and Northwestern will play game two Saturday at Noon.
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