UW softball team blanks Northwestern in World Series, 9-0

OKLAHOMA CITY — Adding to their other magical, late-season achievements, the Washington Huskies made a softball game both long and short here Friday night.

The Huskies, increasingly looking like a team capable of winning a title, throttled No. 2 seed Northwestern 9-0 in five innings, gaining themselves a day off today and a favorite's tag to win a spot in the best-of-three championship series starting Monday.

"It's so exciting, I can't even explain it," said second baseman Dominique Lastrapes.

Sixth-seeded Washington now needs to win only one of two possible games Sunday against one of three teams, depending on today's losers' bracket — DePaul, Arizona State or Arizona.

Danielle Lawrie threw another overpowering game for Washington, allowing a single hit. And the Huskies waited out Northwestern starter Eileen Canney, the Big Ten pitcher of the year, for five walks that set the table for the five-inning "mercy" killing of the Wildcats.

Good thing. As it was, the game went 2 hours, 13 minutes, on a night when the two-game session began 2 hours, 47 minutes late because of a thunderstorm in the area. The Tennessee-Arizona nightcap, won 1-0 by the Vols, didn't begin until 11:20 p.m. Central time.

Northwestern and Washington combined for 12 walks, second only to the record 13 in this event, and that was set in a 12-inning game.

But most of the ragged nature of it was on the Northwestern side.

"We didn't expect to come out and run-rule a team like Northwestern," said Washington coach Heather Tarr. "But I told the team, when you've got a plan and you can execute it, good things happen."

And the Huskies did. Canney, a 6-foot senior, lives on a rise ball, and she shut down Arizona State Thursday 2-0 because the Sun Devils lunged at pitches out of the strike zone.

"Our plan was to make her bring the ball into the zone, and we were able to do that," said Tarr. "We didn't swing at pitches she normally gets people to swing at."

Believe it or not, there was a turning point in a game in which the Huskies scored more runs than they had put up in any outing since they had 12 against Stanford on April 22.

Lawrie issued her only hit in two games to leadoff batter Nicole Pauly in the second inning, a cue-shot double down the first-base line. Then she walked Erin Dyer, and an illegal delivery on the pitch — for leaving the rubber before throwing — moved Pauly to third.

But Lawrie took advantage of weaker Northwestern hitters at the bottom of the order, striking out the next three Wildcats.

"At that moment, we needed to put the ball in play," said Northwestern coach Kate Drohan. "We didn't make it happen, and this is a game of momentum."

Apparently so. With one out in the top of the third, Canney walked Ashley Charters and Marnie Koziol, and Lastrapes jumped on the first pitch for a single to right, scoring Charters. Dena Tyson's grounder scored the second run.

"I definitely didn't have my best stuff tonight," said Canney.

The Huskies added another run in the fourth, and in the fifth, Northwestern came unraveled as the first eight Washington hitters reached in a six-run inning.

With Lawrie in top form, it was long over.

"She's our go-to gal right now," said Tarr. "Danielle is pretty hot right now, due to the fact she didn't have to pitch every game of the season because Caitlin Noble carried a pretty big part of the load."

And largely because Lawrie is hot, just about nobody is hotter than Washington right now.

"Every week in the postseason, even in regionals, people thought we were going to get beat, and there was going to be an underdog come out of it," said Lastrapes. "People thought Alabama was going to beat us at home [in the Super Regionals]. We're definitely proving them wrong these last three weeks."

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com

Friday's box

E — Tyson (4). LOB — Huskies 6; Wildcats 6. 2B — Charters (9); Pauly (13). HBP — Tyson. SH — Miller(8). SB — Charters 2 (35); Euler (8).

WP — Canney(23). HBP — by Canney (Tyson). BK — Lawrie(5); Canney(2). PB — Dyer, E. (16). Umpires — HP: Suzie Benzel 1B: Paul Edds 3B: John Kurnat Start: 8:35 Time — 2:13 A — N/A. Delaney faced 3 batters in the 5th.