Buckeyes Edged by Northwestern in B1G Tournament, 3-1 – Ohio State Buckeyes

Friday, May 13

State College, Pa.

Ohio State

33-18-1

Northwestern

26-25

Ohio State

Northwestern

Buckeyes Edged by Northwestern in B1G Tournament, 3-1 – Ohio State Buckeyes

5/13/2016 12:00:00 AM | Softball

Box Score

May 13, 2016

Final Stats

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Ohio State’s run at the 2016 Big Ten Softball Tournament came to an end of Friday afternoon with a hard-fought 3-1 setback against third-seeded Northwestern at Beard Field on the campus of Penn State University.

THE SHORT STORY
Northwestern scored three times in the bottom of the second and fended off several late-inning rallies from Ohio State to advance to tomorrow’s Big Ten Tournament semifinal against either Illinois or Minnesota. Freshman Emily Clark continued her strong rookie campaign, lacing a run-scoring double in the fourth inning.

HOW THE RUNS WERE SCORED
Northwestern put pressure on the Buckeyes from the start, as the first two batters in the bottom of the first reached via singles and stole bases. Andrea Filler’s sacrifice fly to center made it 1-0 in favor of the Wildcats, a RBI groundout to Emily Clark scored the second run and Brooke Marquez hit a double to center field that made it 3-0. Shelby Hursh came on in relief of starter Lena Springer and retired the final batter of the inning on a strikeout.

Emily Clark cut into the Northwestern lead with a one-out RBI double to left center in the top of the fourth that scored Cammi Prantl, who had reached on a lead-off walk. It was Clark’s ninth double and 25th RBI of the season.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
In the bottom of the second, Northwestern threatened to add to its early 3-0 advantage when Krista Williams and Sabrina Rabin collected back to back bloop singles between shortstop and third base. Hursh, however, was able to thwart the rally by getting a fly out to left and two weak infield pop ups.

Erika Leonard delivered the Buckeyes’ first hit of the afternoon, a single to left field to lead off the top of the third. After pinch runner Megan Choinacky was sacrificed to second, the next two batters popped out and struck out, respectively.

Alex Bayne led off the top of the sixth with an infield single and with two outs stole second, but she was stranded in scoring position following a ground out to third.

In the bottom half of the inning, a heady defensive play by Ohio State kept the deficit at just two runs. With one out and runners on second and third, Amy Letourneau flied out to center field, and a perfect throw by Taylor White into Anna Kirk and third doubled off Morgan Nelson attempting to tag to third. The out also occurred before the runner at third tagged home, keeping the score 3-1.

In the seventh, Jess Machovina got her second hit in as many games, this one a single past the second baseman. That’s all the offense OSU could generate, however, as Alex Vargas hit a ball sharply to the outfield but right at Sabrina Rabin. The next two batters grounded out and flied out, respectively.

IN THE CIRCLE
Hursh was able to shut down a potent Northwestern offense by tossing 5.1 scoreless innings with six strikeouts. She also worked out of several jams, forcing the Wildcats to strand runners on the base paths in the second through sixth innings.

AT THE PLATE
Five different players recorded Ohio State’s five hits — Machovina, Bayne, Clark, Leonard and Betschel. Two of those hits came in pinch hitting situations.

NOTING THE 2016 REGULAR SEASON
The Buckeyes won nine of their first 11 Big Ten games in a conference that boasts six teams ranked in the Top 50 of the RPI. Additionally, from Feb. 27 through March 19, Ohio State played seven of 10 games against teams that made last year’s NCAA Tournament, going 4-3 in those contests (all on the road or at neutral sites). The Buckeyes own nine wins over teams ranked in the Top 75 of the RPI with six of those victories coming on the road or at neutral sites. The Buckeyes were also ranked for five straight weeks in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 poll.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE GAME

T4 | #Buckeyes are on the board! @clarkemily448 laces this RBI double to left center. NW 3, OSU 1. #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/dJ0JouiuzO

— Ohio State Softball (@OhioState_SB) May 13, 2016