Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
NOTRE DAME
Notre Dame Ekes Out 1-0 Win Over Falcons
March 29, 2006 | Softball
March 29, 2006
NOTRE DAME, Ind. - After two-and-a-half hours of play, and nearly a game-and-a-half's worth of scoreless softball, the host University of Notre Dame finally pushed a run across the plate for a 1-0, 11-inning victory over Bowling Green State University Wednesday (March 29). The non-conference game was held at UND's Ivy Field.
With the win, the Fighting Irish improve to 14-10 on the season, while the Falcons drop to 17-10 on the year.
Notre Dame's Heather Booth and BGSU senior Liz Vrabel hooked up in a pitcher's duel, with both hurlers shutting down the opposing bats for nearly the entire game. Booth allowed just three hits in 11 innings of work, walking two batters and striking out five in her shutout win.
Vrabel took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, and blanked the Irish for 10 and two-thirds innings before the hosts finally broke through. Vrabel allowed five hits, walking four (two were intentional walks) and striking out six.
Freshmen Wendy Sheehan and Hayley Wiemer and junior Megan McPherson each had a hit for the Brown and Orange. The top-three hitters in the UND lineup did all of the damage for the hosts, as leadoff hitter Stephanie Brown and number-two batter Alexandra Kotcheff had two hits apiece. Three-spot hitter Mallorie Lenn had the other hit, the game-winning double that scored Kotcheff in the bottom of the 11th.
The first inning of the game lasted a grand total of eight minutes, as both Vrabel and Booth mowed down the opposition in order. Notre Dame cleanup hitter Meagan Ruthrauff began the second inning with a fly ball to deep leftfield, but sophomore Allison Vallas was able to track it down and make the catch a few steps in front of the fence. Vrabel then struck out Linda Kohan, and Wiemer made a nice running catch of Katie Laing's soft liner to right.
In the bottom of the third, the Irish picked up the game's first baserunner, in the person of Sara Schoonaert, who drew a leadoff walk. But, Vrabel got Erin Glasco to pop up to sophomore Dawnjene DeLong at short, and on the next pitch, senior catcher Abby Habicht gunned down Schoonaert attempting to steal. Vrabel struck out Stephanie Mola to end the inning.
Both Vrabel and Booth faced the minimum nine hitters apiece through the first three innings. Those three frames took a total of 32 minutes to play.
DeLong began the fourth frame by hitting a scorcher, but the line drive was right at third baseman Ruthrauff. Booth retired the next two hitters to remain perfect through four innings.
Vrabel walked the leadoff hitter, Brown, on four pitches in the bottom of the fourth. The third pitch of that sequence was actually a strike, but one of the base umpires had called an illegal pitch. The next batter, Kotcheff, attempted a sacrifice bunt, but the attempt failed. Third baseman Gina Rango fielded the ball and fired to DeLong at second for the force play. Then, Lenn hit a liner to Rango at third, who threw to first baseman Lindsay Heimrich to catch Kotcheff trying to scramble back to the bag, for an inning-ending double play.
Booth's bid for a perfect game ended with two away in the top of the fifth. Sheehan hit a blooper over second baseman Laing's head into shallow rightfield for the first hit by either team. Booth, however, recovered to get a strikeout to retire the side.
For the second-straight day, the Falcons battled a `major-conference' team to a scoreless deadlock into the fifth inning. On Wednesday, however, the scoreless draw continued through the fifth, as Rango ended the inning with a nice lunging grab of Laing's line drive in foul territory.
With Vrabel still having not allowed a hit, second baseman McPherson ranged far to her right in the bottom of the sixth, making a backhanded grab of Schoonaert's grounder and throwing her out. Then, Glasco hit a soft liner to Rango, and Vrabel whiffed Mola to get out of the sixth.
For both the Falcons and the Irish, the best scoring chances of regulation came in the seventh. In the top of the inning, Wiemer had an opposite-field single to shallow left, just a few feet inside the line. Junior Jeanine Baca flawlessly executed a sacrifice bunt, sending pinch-runner Emmy Ramsey to second.
The next hitter, Rango, reached on an error. Rango hit a hard grounder back to Booth in the circle. Ramsey took off for third when Booth threw to first, but both runners were safe when first baseman Kohan dropped the low throw. Kohan was charged with an error, and the Falcons had runners at the corners with one out.
The next hitter, Vallas, worked Booth to a 2-2 count before ripping a liner down the right-field line. The ball dropped just foul, however, before caroming into the right-field corner, and Booth was able to get a third strike, then another strikeout to end the inning.
Vrabel took her no-hit bid into the bottom of the seventh before Brown, UND's top hitter, led off with a nine-pitch at-bat, culminated by a bloop single up the middle. Kotcheff followed with a single to right, putting two runners aboard with no outs.
Lenn's sacrifice bunt put the potential winning run in scoring position with just one out. BGSU issued an intentional walk to Ruthrauff to load the bases for Kohan. Vrabel got Kohan to hit a grounder to third baseman Rango, who threw home for a force play and the second out. Then, Vrabel induced Laing to ground to third as well, and Rango tagged the bag to send the teams to extra innings.
The Irish defense helped their pitcher in the eighth. Habicht led off the inning with a drive to right-center, but centerfielder Kotcheff was able to make a diving catch to rob the Falcon senior. Then, Heimrich hit a fly ball to left-center, and Kotcheff went the other way to record the second out.
McPherson followed with a bloop single that landed on the edge of the outfield grass just to the left of second base, between four converging Notre Dame fielders. For a brief instant, no one was covering second base. McPherson thought about trying to stretch the hit into a double, but was caught in a rundown and eventually tagged out to end the inning.
Vrabel responded, however, by retiring the side in order in the bottom of the inning. All three Irish hitters sent the ball to McPherson, who caught two popups before fielding a grounder and flipping the ball to first.
In the ninth, the power outage that the two pitchers were inflicting upon the hitters seemed to spread, as the power went out in the press box. The floodlights for the field were unaffected, but it suddenly was `turn back the clock' night, as the scoreboard went dark, and power went out in the press box as well, giving the teams and fans several innings without music and public address announcements.
The Irish appeared to have won the game in the bottom of the ninth. Brown led off with a blooper that landed on the left-field line for a double. The next hitter, Kotcheff, slapped a grounder toward first, and Notre Dame appeared to have ended the contest when Heimrich's throw to third skipped past shortstop DeLong. Brown, who had made a slide toward the third-base bag, got up and ran home as her teammates mobbed her. But, she had missed the base, and was called out.
Kotcheff advanced to second on the play, so the Irish still had a runner in scoring position with just one out. But, Vrabel got Lenn to hit a fly ball to Vallas in left for the second out. BGSU issued another intentional walk to Ruthrauff, and Kohan followed with a liner that was snagged by Heimrich at first.
Rango began the top of the 10th inning by drawing a walk, and a Vallas fielder's choice resulted in a force play and a runner at first with one out. An unsuccessful hit-and-run play, however, resulted in Vallas being tagged out at second base, and a groundout ended that half-inning of play.
In the bottom of the inning, Vrabel retired the Irish in order, with two fly-ball outs and a three-pitch swinging strikeout of Glasco.
The top of the 11th brought the return of power to the scoreboard and the press box. Heimrich -- possibly inspired by being the first batter in several innings to be introduced via the P.A. system -- battled back from an 0-2 count for a walk. But, the Irish got a force play at second base for the second out, and second baseman Laing made a nice running grab of DeLong's looper toward rightfield.
In the bottom of the inning, Mola reached on an infield error, but a strike-`em-out, throw-`em-out double play with Brown at bat erased the baserunner. Kotcheff, however, followed with a blooper that landed just out of reach of the diving Vallas' glove in left-center, and Lenn followed with a double off the base of the wall in right-center, as Kotcheff scored ahead of the throw home to both break the scoreless tie and end the game.
Vrabel threw a total of 144 pitches, with 90 being strikes. Booth had a very similar pitch total, with 91 strikes among her 145 pitches.
The Falcons, after hanging tough with defending national champion Michigan and Notre Dame on back-to-back days, now will quickly prepare for the Mid-American Conference schedule. BGSU will board the bus on Thursday for a weekend trip to the MAC's "East Coast." The Brown and Orange will take on the University at Buffalo in a Friday (March 31) doubleheader, then will play single games at Kent State University on Saturday (April 1) and Sunday (April 2).
