May 4, 2008

Box Score

2008 Big Ten Tournament Bracket (PDF Format)

EVANSTON, Ill. -- No. 11 Northwestern won a share of the Big Ten championship Sunday on Senior Day with a 6-1 win over Michigan State at Sharon J. Drysdale Field, and will host the 2008 Big Ten Tournament May 8-10 as the No. 1 seed in the event.

NU tied Michigan atop the conference standings this year with an 18-2 record, and after all tiebreakers between the two came out equal, the Wildcats won the official coin toss conducted by the Big Ten Conference office to determine the host of the postseason tournament.

For the complete 2008 Big Ten Tournament bracket with game times and seeds, click on the .pdf link at the top of this release. The Big Ten Network will televise Games 3-7.

The Big Ten regular-season title is the sixth for Northwestern and the second under head coach Kate Drohan after also winning the crown in 2006. The Wildcats also won the Big Ten championship in 1982 when a tournament was used to decide what is now the regular-season title, giving NU seven league championships overall.

Northwestern's 18 wins in conference play is its most since winning 19 in 1995, a total which came during an era when league teams played four-game sets against each other. The Wildcats were 19-9 in that season.

Northwestern now is 34-13 on the year with its victory, while Michigan State falls to 26-28 overall, 8-12 in the conference with its loss.

Michigan State took the game's first lead, 1-0, in the top of the third inning. A leadoff single followed by a fielder's choice with the throw to second not getting there in time put two runners on with no outs for the Spartans. After a successful sacrifice bunt, Northwestern starter Lauren Delaney (Jefferson City, Mo./Helias) worked carefully around Spartan slugger Bianca Mejia, walking her to load the bases. Michigan State then executed a squeeze bunt to push a run across, but Delaney answered by coaxing a weak grounder to first that forced out the runner at home before she notched a strikeout to end the inning.

Northwestern struck back in the bottom of the fourth inning to take the lead, 2-1. With one out, freshman Michelle Batts (Bloomingdale, Ill./Glenbard North) drew a four-pitch walk, then was replaced by pinch runner Aly Euler (River Forest, Ill./Oak Park River Forest). Sophomore Nicole Pauly (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) followed with a laser-beam double to left-center that one hopped the fence, but despite the hardness of the hit Euler was able to speed around and score from first to knot the game, 1-1.

Junior Erin Dyer (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport) followed with a solid single into center that brought Pauly in to score and give NU a 2-1 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, senior Darcy Sengewald (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way East) put a perfect personal touch on her Senior Day, leading off the frame with a solo home run to dead center to extend NU's cushion to two, 3-1. The blast was Sengewald's third of the season and the 11th of her career.

The Wildcats led off the sixth inning in exactly the same fashion, with Pauly driving a Lesley Noel (14-18) offering off the Welsh-Ryan Arena wall beyond the left field fence to push the Northwestern lead to three, 4-1. Pauly's home run was her team-leading 13th of the year and the 27th of her career, tying her with Erin Dyer for fourth in NU history.

The home runs kept on coming for the 'Cats, this time on a two-out, two-run shot to center by freshman Robin Thompson (Detroit, Mich./Martin Luther King) in the sixth. Her third shot of the year scored sophomore Kelly Dyer (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport), on base following a one-out walk.

Pauly led NU at the plate with a 3-for-3 day, driving in two and scoring twice on a double and a home run. Thompson drove in a pair for NU.

Delaney improved to 31-8 on the season with the victory, allowing one run on three hits and three walks with six strikeouts.