April 29, 2007

Box Score

EVANSTON, Ill. -- Illinois came into this weekend leading the nation in home runs and ranking sixth in runs scored per game, but on Senior Day Sunday afternoon at Sharon J. Drysdale Field, freshman Lauren Delaney (Jefferson City, Mo./Helias) held the Illini without even a single base knock to record her first-collegiate no-hitter in a 5-0 win for No. 8 Northwestern.

Delaney (17-2) was perfect through 4.2 innings and allowed just two base runners the entire game on a fifth-inning walk and a seventh-inning NU error. She struck out 10, including the side in the first and fifth innings.

Delaney's no-hitter is the second for the Wildcats this season after senior Eileen Canney (Paradise, Calif./Paradise) no-hit then-No. 11 California on February 17. Delaney's outing Sunday marks the 37th no-hitter in Northwestern history, with Delaney becoming the 12th different Wildcat to hurl a solo no-no.

The Wildcats improve to 41-10 overall on the season with the win, and conclude their conference slate at 15-3. Northwestern is off next weekend during the final days of Big Ten play. Illinois falls to 29-23 with the loss, 7-7 in the conference.

Northwestern put the first runs of the game on the board in the top of the third. Senior Katie Logan (Tempe, Ariz./Corona del Sol) led off the frame with a single through the right side of the infield, then two outs later freshman Nicole Pauly (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) launched a home run over the fence in right field to give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead.

The homer was Pauly's ninth of the season and her third of the weekend. Coupled with her three RBIs in Sunday's first game, Pauly now has 53 runs batted in on the season, good for second on the team. That total is more than the NU single-season record of 52 entering the 2007 season, a mark Cooper has broken with her 65 RBIs this year.

In the top of the fourth, sophomore Jessica Rigas (River Forest, Ill./Oak Park River Forest) joined the home run party with a leadoff, solo shot that soared over the left-center field fence to give NU a 3-0 lead. The blast was her eighth of the season and her second of the day after also going yard in solo fashion in the first game of the doubleheader.

In the fifth, the Wildcats led off the inning with a solo home run for the second-consecutive frame. This time, it was sophomore Tammy Williams (Roscoe, Mo./Osceola) taking Illinois starter Ashley Wright deep, lining a ball over the right-center field fence to make NU's lead four, 4-0. The Illini replaced Wright (10-11) with Claire DeVreese in the circle after the blast, which was Williams' 12th of the season and the 26th of her career.

Northwestern tacked on another run in the top of the sixth. Sophomore Erin Hampshire (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier) drew a leadoff, pinch-hit walk, then was replaced at first when senior Jessica Miller (Elberfeld, Ind./Techumseh) re-entered for her. Freshman Kelly Dyer (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport) moved Miller up a bag with a sacrifice bunt, then Logan doubled down the left-field line one out later to plate Miller and make the score 5-0.

In the series, Northwestern clubbed five home runs to zero for Illinois, which led the nation with 1.70 four-baggers per game entering the week. The Wildcats ranked ninth in the country with 1.28 per game coming into this week.

Logan finished the game 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI for the 'Cats, while Pauly drove in a pair.

The Wildcats honored seniors Canney, Cooper, Logan and Miller in between games Sunday afternoon during Senior Day festivities. Northwestern currently is in second place in the Big Ten, needing first-place Ohio State to lose one of its final two games of the season against Penn State to capture NU's second-straight Big Ten title.

Northwestern returns to action in its home and regular-season finale at 3 p.m. Thursday, May 3, in a doubleheader against No. 15 DePaul.

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