2007 Wrap-Up

May 15, 2007
The 2007 Northern State softball squad, armed with eight underclassmen, showed great improvements from the first few weeks of the season to the final games of the year. They finished with a record of 9-41 overall and took eighth place in the Northern Sun Conference after going 4-14 in league play.

The Wolves’ season started in St. Cloud, Minn. on February 17 and 18 at the Husky Dome Invite, where they played four regional games in an enclosed dome setting. The Wolves out-hit the University of Mary in the first game of the season by a margin of nine to three, but stranded seven runners on base and scored just one run in a slim 2-1 loss. Freshman Hilary Smith (Brainerd, Minn.) had an excellent first game in a Wolves uniform, batting a perfect 3-for-3. The Wolves dropped all four games of the Invite despite hitting relatively well. An even bigger loss came as senior pitcher Audrey Decker (St. Charles, Minn.) suffered an injury in the second game and would have to sit out for nearly two months of play.

Northern played ten games in the warm and sunny weather of Kissimmee, Fla. in the opening week of March. Fielding errors hampered their chances of success, but the team came out on top of Lake Superior State for their first win of the season, a 5-3 win on March 8. After scoring just one run in four games following their big win, Northern’s offense struck gold against Wayne State on March 17. In a non-conference bout, the Wolves came up with a season high 16 hits in nine innings. Northern gave up unearned runs early in the game, but cleaned things up in the final innings. The Wolves suffered a hard-fought 11-10 loss as Wayne was successful in playing small ball in the extra innings.

The Wolves would not have to wait long before taking their next season win the following day against South Dakota. This time, an extra inning game went NSU’s way as Hilary Smith knocked out a walk-off two-run homer to give the Wolves the 6-4 win.

The season’s league play opened on April 9 at the NSIC crossover in St. Paul, Minn. The Wolves were out-scored 8-53 in five games played at the event. Northern’s best offensive performance came against host Concordia-St. Paul as the team scored four runs from six hits. Heather Olson (Rosemount, Minn.) drilled in the first two runs of the game in the third inning with a double to right center field. Caitlin Hodges (Hartford) and Christi Schulte went ahead with solo RBI in the fourth inning to complete the scoring. Smith took the loss from the rubber, giving up six earned runs in the 4-12 decision.

The Wolves gained their first NSIC wins of the season on April 18 as they swept the Golden Eagles of Minnesota Crookston in a doubleheader on the road. Schulte threw a complete nine inning game from the circle in game one, fanning eight while giving up just five hits and not allowing an earned run. The Wolves took the first game 2-1 when pinch hitter Jill Sjoerdsma (St. John, Ind.) drove in what would be the winning run in the top of the ninth. The Golden Eagles led most of the way through game two as the Wolves were held scoreless until the fifth inning. NSU scored three runs in the fifth to go ahead and Schulte kept UMC scoreless for the remainder of the game as Northern took the 3-2 win.

Northern played host to the second NSIC crossover event on April 21-22. They battled through rain, wind, and cold in the first day of play, with their final game of the day against Winona State postponed mid-way through the game due to lightning. They completed the game with WSU and two additional games on a better looking Sunday. The Wolves went 1-4 on the weekend, going into bonus play once again with Wayne State, but this time taking the win. Schulte pitched an outstanding game and faced just three batters in four of the first five innings while keeping the Wildcats scoreless through eight. In the top of the tenth inning, Wayne State scored the runner placed on second base after a sacrifice bunt and a single to left field and put the Wolves to the test in the bottom of the inning. Also starting with a runner on second, Northern quickly got two runners on base with Hodges drawing a walk. A sacrifice bunt by Janssen put both runners in scoring position and a Francis single to right center field drove in both runs and gave NSU the 2-1 win.

The Wolves wrapped up their season by winning three of their last six games played, taking one win from Dakota State and sweeping Presentation College in their final home doubleheader of the season. The team entered the NSIC Tournament on May 4 as the number eight seed and was matched up with top seed and tourney host Southwest Minnesota State in the first round. The Wolves notched the game’s first two runs in the fourth inning with both RBI going to pitcher Schulte, who had not allowed an SMSU player to reach base to that point. The Mustangs, who were notorious for late inning comebacks, did just that and put three runs on the board in the bottom of the fourth to take the lead. They finished the game with five runs from six hits and kept Northern to just two runs while allowing nine hits.

NSU was matched up with Upper Iowa in a must-win situation later in the day. They started the game off strong as leadoff batter Janssen singled and later scored to give the Wolves a 1-0 lead. Unfortunately for Northern, however, the Peacocks had a highly productive day at the plate and came up with 13 hits while shutting out the Wolves for the remainder of the game. Upper Iowa scored in five of the six innings at bat and ended Northern’s season by taking a 9-1 win.

Northern placed eighth in the NSIC in 2007 with a league mark of 4-14 and an overall record of 9-41. As a team, they batted .233 with 288 total hits, 126 runs scored, and 113 RBI. The team marked a season fielding percentage of .925 with 943 put-outs, the most by a Wolves squad in the past eight years.

The Wolves’ top batter in 2007 was sophomore Hilary Smith, who led the team in batting average (.336), hits (47), RBI (18), and slugging percentage (.443). Smith had the team’s longest hitting streak of the season, recording knocks in ten straight games. Senior Jenna Drey finished her career leading all past and present NSU players with 501 at bats and 25 stolen bases and comes in second with 127 career hits and nine homeruns. Senior Christi Schulte was the top pitcher, gaining seven of Northern’s nine wins on the season. She led the Wolves in strikeouts with 103 and had an ERA of 3.77.

The Wolves graduate five players, Sara Lipetzky, Christi Schulte, Caitlin Hodges, Jenna Drey, and Audrey Decker.

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