May 18, 2001
Displaying a perfect of example of how to keep cool under pressure, the University of Notre Dame softball team improved to 2-0 in the NCAA Region VII Tournament with a 2-1 victory over Illinois State in Iowa City on Friday night. Illinois State is now eliminated from the tournament field, leaving host Iowa (the #2 seed) and #4 DePaul remaining in the field.
After an offensive explosion in the first game of the tournament yesterday, Notre Dame would be relegated to a defensive contest against the Red Birds with two of the top pitchers in the tournament on the mound. Notre Dame’s Kristin Schmidt and Illinois State’s Nicole Kurth kept both offenses hand cuffed most of the game. Schmidt would give up just four hits, while Kurth (who threw all four games for Illinois State in the tournament) grudgingly let the Irish post five hits after Notre Dame notched 13 against Western Illinois on Thursday.
After a rather uneventful first three innings of play, the Irish posted a run on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth. Alexis Madrid (Temecula, Calif.), the only Notre Dame batter with more than one hit in the game, knocked a double over the third basemen’s head and out of the reach of ISU’s diving leftfield, Cutie Taylor.
Melanie Alkire (Union City, Calif.) came through once again for the Irish, knocking a single to leftfield that allowed Madrid to score and give her team a 1-0 lead.
Schmidt really hit her stride in the pitcher’s circle throughout the middle innings. She struck out the side in the fourth inning, ending a run of seven strikeouts in nine at bats. She would end up with 11 Ks in the ball game, a Notre Dame school record for strikeouts in an NCAA tournament appearance (previous high was nine by Terri Kobata in 1994 against Indiana).
Illinois State would eventually tag Schmidt for a hit in the top of the sixth and it turned out to be a huge play. Cutie Taylor hit a solo home run just over the leftfield fence to tie the game up and suddenly the pressure was back on the top-seeded Irish to answer.
It took two innings, but Notre Dame eventually executed what they needed to win the contest. Leading off the seventh, Jarrah Myers (Carbondale, Kan.) knocked a single to leftfield. Lizzy Lemire (Irvine, Calif.) stepped in next and produced a swinging-bunt on the second pitch, a play that moved Myers into scoring position at second base.
Andrea Loman (Riverside, Calif.) rocketed the first pitch she was thrown over Taylor’s head in leftfield for a double and the game-winning RBI.
The Irish move on to face second-seeded Iowa at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. It will not be an easy assignment for the top-seeded Notre Dame squad, as the Hawkeyes have the luxury of competing in front of their hometown crowd at Pearl Field. Both teams are 2-0 in the double-elimination tournament entering tomorrow’s contest. The loser of the match up tomorrow will meet #4 DePaul at 5 p.m.