Feb. 22, 2008

Box Score

CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. -- Sophomore Lauren Delaney (Jefferson City, Mo./Helias) was simply dominant against the Ducks of Oregon Friday night at the Palm Springs Classic, firing the second no-hitter of her career and striking out a career-high 17 batters in a 7-0 win for No. 2 Northwestern.

Delaney walked a pair and struck out the side in third, fourth and sixth innings. Her first-career no-hitter came April 29, 2007, against Illinois. Delaney's no-hitter is the 38th in Northwestern history and the second for NU against a Pac-10 school after 2007 graduate Eileen Canney no-hit California on Feb. 17, 2007.

Northwestern now is 5-0 on the season with the win, while Delaney improves to 4-0. Oregon falls to 6-7 with the loss.

Northwestern head coach Kate Drohan now has defeated every school in the Pac-10 conference during her seven year career, holding a 25-19 all-time record against the league. Drohan has a winning or .500 record against six of the eight programs in that conference.

Northwestern opened the game's scoring in the bottom of the second. Freshman Michelle Batts (Bloomingdale, Ill./Glenbard North) drew a leadoff walk in the frame, then was replaced by pinch runner Aly Euler (River Forest, Ill./Oak Park River Forest). Euler immediately stole second, then moved to third on a groundout by Erin Dyer (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport). Kelly Dyer (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport) then beat out an infield single to short to plate Euler and give NU a 1-0 lead.

In the top of the fourth, the Wildcats added two more runs. Batts again started things with a walk, then moved to second on a base hit from junior Jessica Rigas (River Forest, Ill./Oak Park River Forest). A wild pitch moved both runners up a bag, then Erin Dyer sent a fly ball deep to the fence in right to score Batts and move Rigas to third on the sacrifice fly.

Kelly Dyer followed with a grounder to second that was mishandled for an error, allowing Rigas to score to make NU's lead three, 3-0.

Pinch hitter Kelly Quinn (Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North) led off the fifth with a strong single to first, then moved to second on a groundout by Darcy Sengewald (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way East). An infield single from Tammy Williams (Roscoe, Mo./Osceola) moved Quinn to third, then she scored on an RBI groundout by Nicole Pauly (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) to give NU a 4-0 advantage.

Kelly Dyer notched a one-out single to right in the sixth inning, then moved all the way to third when pinch hitter Robin Thompson's (Detroit, Mich./Martin Luther King) grounder was booted behind the circle. Thompson then stole second, but the throw got behind the bag to allow Dyer to score and Thompson to move to third. A single from freshman Jordan Wheeler (Garden Grove, Calif./Los Alamitos) drove home Thompson to give NU a 6-0 lead, then another single by Sengewald sent Wheeler racing around to third. The hit also chased Oregon starter Melissa Rice (1-3) from the circle in favor of Brittany Rumfelt.

Williams then drove a pitch to deep left where it was caught for the second out of the inning, allowing Thompson to trot home on the sacrifice fly to make the score 7-0.

Meanwhile, Delaney continued to fire bullets. Beginning with a K for the second out in the fourth inning, Delaney fanned eight-consecutive batters heading into the seventh inning where the first Duck to the plate attempted to bunt, but was thrown out at first. Delaney quickly resumed her K-ing ways, fanning the next two batters to finish with 17.

Williams and Kelly Dyer both finished the game with a pair of hits for NU, while Batts walked three times in the game.

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