Big Ten Tournament Day Three Recap
The opening game of day three of the Big Ten Tournament featured No. 4 Northwestern taking on No. 12 Iowa in the quarterfinal round. Due to weather and helicopter delays on Friday, the final quarterfinal game was pushed to Saturday morning. Northwestern came out on top in a thrilling 2-1 victory in eight innings at Goodman Diamond.
Lily Novak led off the bottom of the eighth with a single back through the middle, giving NU its first base runner in the game since the fourth inning. Sabrina Rabin then was hit by a pitch to put two Cats on base with nobody out. Rachel Lewis stepped up to the plate and pounded a full-count double over the head of the left fielder to end the game in walk-off fashion, 2-1.
Freshman Kenna Wilkey was lights out in the circle, firing a complete game three-hitter. Wilkey (18-5) went the distance and accounted for all eight innings, allowing one run on three hits and four walks with eight strikeouts. At one point in the game, she retired 15 Hawkeye batters in a row.
The second game of the day was the semifinal between No. 2 Minnesota and No. 3 Indiana. The weather appeared to be following the Gopher’s tournament game schedule. After waiting out an almost eight-hour rain delay on Friday, Saturday brought more rain and another hour and 45-minute delay.
Following the lengthy rain delay, Indiana came out and put up a four-spot in the top of the fifth forcing a Minnesota pitching change halfway through the inning. Minnesota answered back and scored six runs in the 9-4 comeback victory. Sophomore Amber Fiser tossed 4.1 innings allowing four runs. Junior Sydney Smith came out of the bullpen and tossed 2.2 innings of shutout relief, picking up the win, and striking out four. Minnesota will head to the Championship, their third Tournament Title appearance in a row.
The final semifinal game was a showdown between Northwestern and No. 8 Michigan State. The Spartans knocked out the No. 1 seeded Michigan Wolverines on Friday night, for the second year in a row. Northwestern came out swinging and tacked on 11 runs behind a no-hit pitching performance by Morgan Newport. The sophomore needed just 67 pitches to throw the first no-hitter in her career. Newport (14-7) allowed only a two-out walk in the first and a two-out error in the second to reach base in the contest. She also struck out four.
The run-rule victory pushed the Cats to the Championship round where they would be set to take on Minnesota. Northwestern and Minnesota met for a three-game series in the Big Ten regular season where the Cats came out on top, claiming the series with two of three wins.
The Big Ten Tournament Championship game was set to take place on Saturday night. Until yet again, to nobody’s surprise this time, the weather had other plans. Both teams waited out the rain until 9:30 p.m. when the game was officially ruled as postponed. The Championship game will now take place on Sunday, May 13 with first pitch slated for 10 a.m CST. The game will air live on Big Ten Network.
