Notre Dame Ties Northwestern

EVANSTON, Ill. – The Notre Dame Softball team tied Northwestern Tuesday afternoon 10-10. The game was called after the seventh inning due to darkness and Northwestern’s field not having lights. The Irish are now 16-20-1 on the season.

Notre Dame found success with two outs, tallying nine hits with two outs and scoring 9 of the 10 runs with a pair of outs on the board. The 12 hits on the day were the second-most by Notre Dame this season and five players registered a multi-hit game.

It was the second time the Irish have scored in double digits this year. Notre Dame scored in each of the first five innings.

Kaia Cortes and Anna Holloway both hit home runs, making it seven games now this season that the Irish have hit multiple home runs in a single game.

Sydny Poeck was hit by a pitch in the top of the second, extending her on-base streak to 17 games. 

How it happened

It didn’t take long for the Irish to make their presence felt on the road. With two outs in the top of the first, Kaia Cortes launched a fly ball up and over the left center field fence, scoring Addison Amaral to put Notre Dame up 2-0 before even taking the field. It was the freshman’s fourth home run of the year.

The Notre Dame offense continued to pile on in the second. With the bases loaded, Emily Tran rolled a ground ball to second to score Anna Holloway, who doubled to leadoff the inning. Next batter up, Amaral roped a ball into the left center field gap, scoring Caroline O’Brien and Sydny Poeck. Amaral trotted into second with her second hit in as many innings. Notre Dame led 5-0 after the second.

The third inning brought more runs for the Irish. Holloway hit her second homer of the season, an absolute rocket over the center field fence. Notre Dame kept piling it on after that when an Tran single to left scored two more for a career-high three-RBI day for the Irish outfielder. Notre Dame led 8-2 after three innings.

With the bases loaded and two outs, a hit by pitch with the bases loaded scratched across the second run for Northwestern, which would be the final batter for starter Brianne Weiss, who went 2.2 innings, striking out three and allowing just the two runs. Kami Kamzik relieved the southpaw and got a huge strikeout with the bases loaded to keep it a six-run Irish lead.

For the third-straight inning, Notre Dame loaded the bases, this time for Jane Kroneneberger. She hit a grounder back up the middle to score Amaral for the ninth Irish run. 

Northwestern tacked on a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth to cut the lead to five. The Irish countered with a run by Christina Willemssen on a wild pitch to make it 10-4.

Kamzik settled in for a scoreless bottom of the fifth inning, getting a swinging strikeout to silence the Wildcats in the fifth.

Northwestern put two more on in the bottom of the sixth and refused to go away in the seventh after getting a pair of runners on to leadoff the inning. Shannon Becker relieved Kamzik in a save situation. After she hit a batter to load the bases, Micaela Kastor came into the circle.

After being named to the NFCA Top Performers list earlier today, the junior got a pop up to first for a huge second out. But a grand slam with two strikes and two outs by Northwestern tied the game at 10 when it was called due to darkness.

Notre Dame returns to Melissa Cook Stadium this weekend for the 15th annual Strikeout Cancer Weekend. The Irish will take on Pittsburgh Friday at 6pm, Saturday at 1 pm and Sunday at noon.