May 19, 2001
It was a mixture of good and bad news for the Notre Dame softball team (54-6) on Saturday at the Region VII tournament in Iowa City, Iowa. At the end of the day, the mission the Irish were unable to fulfill in the first game on Saturday becomes the same mission the team will face on Sunday – with a change in parameters.
After dropping the first game 6-0 to Iowa (the bad news), Notre Dame rebounded to eliminate DePaul 8-1 (the good news) in the second game to earn the right to face the Hawkeyes again on Sunday. This time, though, the Irish will have to beat Iowa twice to move on to the College World Series in Oklahoma City, Okla., next weekend.
The Irish rebounded to win the second game after suffering through a frustrating loss to the host team in front of a packed (1,187 was the announced attendance) and hostile Pearl Field crowd in Iowa City. Notre Dame ended up out-hitting the Hawkeyes nine-to-six, but could not put any runs on the scoreboard against Iowa starting pitcher Kristi Hanks. Hanks would end up scattering those nine hits over seven innings of work without striking out or walking a Notre Dame batter.
Kristin Johnson led off the bottom of the first inning for Iowa with a double. Lisa Rache then laid down a sacrifice bunt and Irish first base Andrea Loman (Riverside, Calif.) threw to third base, attempting to get the lead runner out. Johnson slid under the tag, though, and suddenly the Hawkeyes had runners on the corners with no outs.
Irish starting pitcher Jen Sharron (Agoura Hills, Calif.) got exactly what she needed next, forcing Alicia Gerlach into an unassisted ground out to Loman at first base. Notre Dame decided to intentionally walk Katy Jendrzejewksi to load the bases and set up the force play at home. Jessica Bashor followed with a shallow fly out to leftfield, but Lizzy Lemire’s (Irvine, Calif.) attempted throw to home was high and the host team had a 1-0 lead.
The frustrating pattern would continue for the Irish the whole game. Iowa added one run in the second inning on a Johnson triple to the wall that Lemire almost reigned in and also put up two runs in the third inning on a bases-loaded walk and a sacrifice fly. When Notre Dame was able to produce a scoring opportunity, fate seemed destined to keep the Irish off the board.
Jarrah Myers (Carbondale, Kan.) led off the fourth inning with a single, followed by a Lemire single to put runners on first and second. Loman then bounced a grounder to short and the Hawkeyes were able to get Myers out at third base.
Notre Dame would keep the pressure on when Andria Bledsoe (Higley, Ariz.) singled to leftfield to load the bases for Sharron. Suddenly, fate decided to strike against the Irish. Sharron drilled a grounder up the middle that performed a perfect bounce for Hawkeye shortstop Johnson, who picked the ball up, stepped on second base and threw out Sharron at first for a rally-killing double play.
The Irish would be unable to mount any kind of scoring opportunity after that double play and Iowa sealed the game with two more runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Sharron wound up with one of her more rocky starts of the season, giving up six runs on six hits, walking a season-high seven and striking out four.
With the disappointing 6-0 loss behind them, the Irish were faced with elimination against DePaul just 30 minutes after the first game. The start of the game would put even more pressure on the Irish as the Blue Demons would put a run on the board in the bottom of the first inning.
Kristin Schmidt (Houston, Texas) started the game for the Irish and would be faced with an unusual first inning. Liz Bouck drew a four-pitch walk to start the DePaul half of the first. Sarah Martz then laid down a sacrifice bunt back to Schmidt and the freshman turned to second base for an apparent easy throw to force out Bouck. Notre Dame’s middle infielders, Melanie Alkire (Union City, Calif.) and Alexis Madrid (Temecula, Calif.) apparently had a communication problem, though, and no one covered second base. Schmidt was unable to throw Martz out a first and suddenly (much like the beginning of the Iowa game) there were runners on first and second with no one out.
Shavaughne Desecki provided the Irish the first out of the inning, fouling out to Myers behind the plate. DePaul followed by executing a perfect double steal to put both runners in scoring position at second and third. Gina Ramacci gave her team an RBI hit, grounding out to Madrid at second base and allowing Bouck to score the first run of the game. Sarah Douglas then flied out to centerfield, ending an inning when DePaul had no hits but scored a run.
Now the season was on the line for the Irish and they responded in the same way they have the entire season – with an offensive strike. Myers led off the third inning by drilling a groundball to second base, which DePaul’s Katy Kukman bobbled and allowed Myers to reach first. Lemire immediately moved Myers to second base with a sacrifice bunt, but Loman grounded into a fielders choice that enabled DePaul to throw Myers out at third base.
It was actually a miracle that Loman was still in the ball game. The Irish first base chased down a pop-foul in the first game against Iowa and actually made the catch, but she slammed her non-throwing arm into the corner of the cement-block wall in the Irish dugout and was down for several minutes. She returned to the game just two innings later (at first the Irish training staff was afraid the arm was broken, but fortunately it is just a very deep bruise) but her hitting will be affected throughout the rest of the tournament.
Loman’s toughness is legendary in the Irish program, though, and the sophomore immediately stole first base to get in scoring position for Notre Dame’s hottest hitter in tournament, Andria Bledsoe. The Irish third base is currently eight-for-11 in the regional, including a six-for-six performance (with two doubles, two RBI and three runs scored) today. Bledsoe came through with a single to centerfield (and she advanced to second base on the throw) that allowed Loman to score from second.
Next up for the Irish was designated player Jen Sharron. Sharron would shake off any effects of her tough outing in the first game by going three-for-four from the plate against the Blue Demons, including the RBI single that allowed Bledsoe to score in the second inning.
With a 2-1 lead, Schmidt would return to her dominating form throughout the rest of the game. She would give up just two hits against the Blue Demons, striking out four and giving up just the one run in the first inning.
Notre Dame tacked on three runs in the top of the fifth and sixth innings. Jenny Kriech (Indianapolis, Ind.) provided an RBI single in the fifth as well as Alkire adding a two-RBI single.
In the sixth, Bledsoe posted an RBI single while Madrid doubled into the gap to give Notre Dame its seventh and eighth runs of the game. The eight runs are the most the Blue Demons have given up this season.
Now the Irish know what they must accomplish to reach Oklahoma City: sweep a doubleheader from Iowa on its home field. The first game is scheduled for 12 noon, with the second following about 30 minutes after the first. You can follow the action via live statistics at www.und.com.