Northwestern looking to reach first WCWS since 2007
EVANSTON, Ill. (BVM) – The Northwestern softball program may be one that gets overlooked, but it continues to change that narrative with success year after year. The 2022 season was again a special one for the Wildcats, and one of their best in quite some time.
Still under the leadership of head coach Kate Drohan, the Wildcats being in the mix for a Women’s College World Series (WCWS) berth comes as no surprise. After taking over the Wildcats’ program in 2002, Drohan has led a 20-year run of success that has seen over 600 wins.
The height of the run may have come back in 2006 and 2007 when Northwestern had back-to-back 50-win seasons. In 2006, the team won the Big Ten and finished as national runner-up. They would reach the WCWS again in 2007, but again fall short.
A decade-and-a-half later, the Wildcats are still searching for their next appearance in the WCWS, but seem poised to do so this year.
The program continues to see consistent success, winning 30 or more games in four of the last five seasons, with a Covid-shortened 2020 campaign being the only exception. This year, Northwestern went an impressive 40-10 overall, going 19-4 in Big Ten play.
Northwestern won its first outright Big Ten regular season title since 2008 this season. While they came up short in a 2-1 loss to Michigan in the Big Ten tournament, Drohan thinks it can be a good learning experience for her team.
“That game with Michigan was a tough game,” Drohan said during a press conference on Wednesday. “I thought Danielle pitched really, really well and I thought our defense was really tough the entire tournament. We need to cash in and our offense needs to really understand how to get back to the basics of how we can get production throughout the entire lineup.”
The Wildcats also had many big wins throughout the season against fellow NCAA softball tournament teams that have them on the national radar, including defeating then No. 3 and now No. 5-seeded UCLA on a walk-off homer by senior Maeve Nelson. They also beat No. 10 seed Clemson and a couple of other top Pac-12 teams in Washington and Oregon.
MAEVE CALLED GAME 🚨
Maeve Nelson hit a walk-off three-run home run to clinch No. 21 Northwestern’s 6-4 upset over No. 3 UCLA.#NCAASoftball x 🎥 @NUSBcats pic.twitter.com/hkZCXWWbSN
— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) February 18, 2022
The Wildcats have been led by senior leadership in all aspects. Senior Nikki Cuchran leads the team in batting average at .367 while senior Skyler Shellmyer leads the team in hits. However, the biggest bat in Northwestern’s lineup comes from grad student Rachel Lewis who is amongst the NCAA leaders in home runs (20) and RBIs (52). Lewis was also named Big Ten Player of the Year this season.
“It’s been really fun to coach Rachel because her motor just goes,” Drohan said. “She’s so explosive on the bases, so explosive at the plate. She’s really allowed us as a program to do a lot of things. Her versatility and her steadiness, how healthy she’s been, all of it’s been really great. But I think she has really approached this last month with some unfinished business.”
With Lewis’ career coming to a close, she is prepared for one last ride with the Wildcats, a program that has meant so much to her over the years.
“I hope I’ve left the program better than I found it,” Lewis said in a press conference on Wednesday. “I’m just really lucky to be able to play with the people I’ve played with. Coming in as a freshman, I had an awesome senior class, and I hope to leave my mark the same way on those younger players now.”
Meanwhile, the Wildcats also boast the Big Ten Pitcher of the Year in senior Danielle Williams, who is eighth in the country in strikeouts with 287 while boasting an impressive 26-4 record and 1.53 ERA. Williams’ arm could ultimately take the Wildcats deep into the postseason this year.
“Danielle has been awesome and she’s worked really hard to be ready for as many times as we’ve called on her,” Drohan said.
The tournament for the Wildcats will begin on Friday at 3:30 p.m. (CST) as Northwestern takes on Oakland University in the Evanston Regional at Sharon J. Drysdale Field.
Punching our ticket! 🏆🎟😻#GoCats | #BeRemarkable pic.twitter.com/KwOVPdr8Q4
— Northwestern Softball (@NUSBcats) May 16, 2022
As the No. 1 seed in the region and the No. 9 seed in the tournament overall, Northwestern will be the favorite to come out of the region, and is excited to play in front of its home crowd.
“We’re really excited to host the Evanston Regional, our team is really excited to play on our field again,” Drohan said. “I think we’ve got a lot of really well-coached, different styles coming in this weekend. We’ve got some good power teams, some good running teams, so we have to be ready for anything.”
“I’m excited to play in front of our fans,” Lewis added. “We’re excited to have that energy back.”
Along with Oakland, McNeese State (38-19) and Notre Dame (39-10) will also visit Evanston in the opening portion of the tournament.
𝐄𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥
📅 May 20-22(9) @NUSBcats@NDsoftball@McNeeseSoftball@OaklandSoftball#RoadToWCWS pic.twitter.com/QQWYUTKlCa
— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) May 15, 2022
While Northwestern did not face either Oakland or McNeese State this season, one of its 10 losses did come to Notre Dame in early April.
“We are two programs who have played each other quite a bit, and in the postseason,” Drohan said about Notre Dame. “We have two very similar teams as well with a lot of veterans … I think the game that we played them earlier this year was a tough game, we came up short. But I think that we’re two programs that are very familiar with each other.”
Northwestern will be making its 20th tournament appearance and 15th under Drohan, earning the highest seed the program has seen since that infamous 2007 season. An opening win over Oakland will send them to a Saturday afternoon contest against Notre Dame or McNeese State, and another win there would have them in the driver’s seat to get out of the region. The team believes they have the experience to get to where they want to go, but for now, it’s all about taking it one game at a time.
“I think that from the Big Ten tournament, we kind of learned what it was going to feel like in the postseason,” Lewis said. “Obviously, a lot of us already have that experience with so many times that we’ve been at regionals, but it just makes it so much more real. Obviously we’ve dreamt about this the entire time we’ve been here but especially this season, those big wins early on, we knew what it could feel like being in the world series. That was a lot more motivation for us to do well and to get to there … It’s going to take a lot to get there but we’re really excited to put in the work to do it.”
It remains to be seen just how far this veteran-laden squad can go this spring, but as one of the steadiest programs in the country over the last decade-plus, it might just finally be Northwestern’s year.
