April 19, 2001
The 11th-ranked University of Notre Dame softball team earned its 10th-consecutive doubleheader sweep with 7-6 and 5-1 victories over #10 DePaul Thursday afternoon in Chicago, Ill.. The Irish are now 38-3 on the season and boast an NCAA-best 20 game win streak.
It was a meeting between arguably the two best college softball teams in the Midwest – and DePaul looked to have the upper hand early in the first game.
The Irish debuted a new lineup for the doubleheader against the Blue Demons. Danielle Klayman came in from centerfield to play first base, Andrea Loman moved from first to third, and freshman Nicole deFau earned her first start of the year in rightfield after Jenny Kriech moved to center.
The usually-sure handed Loman let the Blue Demon lead off hitter Liz Bouck to reach second base in the first inning with just her second error of the season. Sarah Martz followed with a single to leftfield, a hit that skipped through the usual defensive position of Irish shortstop Melanie Alkire who had started toward third base to cover a hit and run play.
Martz stole second without a throw and Gina Ramacci laid down a sacrifice suicide bunt to the pitcher allowing Bouck to score. DePaul’s Lindsay Chouinard followed with a pop up single to centerfield that just alluded the glove of Kriech, allowing Martz to score the second run of the inning.
Suddenly, Irish starter Jen Sharron had given up two runs without a single hard-hit ball. She rebounded by getting Christina Douglas to ground right back to her and Shavaughne Desecki to ground out to short stop on a nifty play by Alkire behind second base to end the inning.
Both teams were unable to mount any offense in the second inning, but the Irish were able to get a run back in the third. Kriech drew a four pitch walk and Klayman moved her to second with a ground out to first base. Alkire jumped all over the first pitch she saw from Blue Demon starter Chouinard and drove it to the wall in rightfield, allowing Kriech to come all the way around and score on the long single.
Chouinard escaped further damage by getting Jarrah Myers to ground into a fielders choice followed by the Irish catcher getting thrown out attempting a steal.
Sharron worked a one-two-three inning in the fourth, setting the stage for a big fifth inning by the Irish offense. After Lizzy Lemire fouled out to first base, Loman (who consistently drilled the ball in every at bat vs. DePaul) drove a 2-1 pitch down the leftfield line for a double. Sharron and Lisa Mattison followed with singles to leftfield to load the bases with Alexis Madrid’s batting position coming up. After Hoag was inserted at first as a pinch runner, Andria Bledsoe picked up a bat to pinch hit for Madrid. Bledsoe, who injured her knee in a collision at Syracuse less than two weeks ago, hit the ball hard but right at DePaul’s third base Kathy Kukman who threw Loman out at home.
With the bases still loaded, Kriech knocked a single up the middle to score Sharron and tie the game. Next across the plate was Hoag, who scored on a heads-up play on a wild pitch. Klayman followed up with a double to the wall in leftfield, clearing the bases and putting the Irish up 5-2. Alkire tacked another run on the Irish lead with a single to leftfield, allowing Klayman to score.
Sharron allowed a two-out double in the bottom of the fourth, but induced a pop up from Dana Jakusz to end the inning.
Loman led off Notre Dame’s half of the fifth with a laser beam double to the leftfield fence that ended up just six inches short of a home run. After a ground out, Lisa Mattison doubled into the rightfield gap to score Loman and Notre Dame’s seventh run of the contest.
DePaul began its charge back into the game in the sixth inning after getting one run back in the fifth on a single and a double.
Kukman and Christina Douglas both singled to begin the bottom of the sixth and Desecki moved Kukman to third with a fly ball to rightfield. Jakusz was then hit by a Sharron pitch, but the Irish got the first out of the inning on a Sarah Douglas pop up.
Bouck hit a ground ball to third base that Loman charged and handled cleanly while entertaining thoughts of making the out at home, but the play at the plate was not there. By the time Loman turned to throw to first, Bouck had beaten the throw comfortably. Martz made the Irish pay for the mistake by lining a single to leftfield and suddenly the five-run Notre Dame lead was cut to one.
Showing no signs of panic, Sharron settled back and induced a ground ball to shortstop to end the inning. She would find herself back on the mound quickly, though, as the Irish went one-two-three in the top of the seventh.
Chouinard drove the first pitch in the bottom of the seventh deep into centerfield, but Kriech was there to make the play for the first out. Kukman nailed the second pitch of the inning straight back to Sharron, who knocked the ball down enough for Loman to spring on it from third base and make a spectacular throw to first for the second out of the inning. Christina Douglas ended up flying out to rightfield to finish off the first victory for the Irish.
Both teams took time to recuperate after the hectic, and sometimes sloppy, first contest. The pitching matchup in the second game featured two freshman hurlers, Kristin Schmidt for Notre Dame and Sarah Martz for DePaul.
Notre Dame wasted little time getting the second game under Irish control. Kriech singled up the middle, followed by a Klayman single on a perfect bunt that skidded past third base. Alkire singled to leftfield to load the bases, followed by a pair of Myers and Loman sacrifice flies to put the Irish up 2-0. Alkire scored the third run of the inning on a fielding error to put her team ahead to stay 3-0.
The Irish tacked another run on the lead with a Alkire double and a subsequent sacrifice fly from Myers to give Schmidt a four-run lead, though the rookie really didn’t need all that much help.
Schmidt ended up making just two bad pitches in the game. One, DePaul’s Kukman drove over the leftfield fence and the other Chouinard hit into the leftfield gap. In the end, Schmidt would give up just the one run on the homer and strike out eight to earn her 18th victory of the season.
Next up for the Irish is a return to BIG EAST action with a doubleheader at Virginia Tech on Saturday.