GRAND FORKS, N.D. – The North Dakota softball team fell on Thursday evening from Albrecht Field, 8-0 against the Omaha Mavericks. UND drops to 25-20 and 2-8 in conference play while Omaha improves to 30-9 and 12-1 in Summit Play.
UND trailed just 1-0 going into the sixth inning, but was outscored 7-0 over the final two frames. NoDak was outhit 13-4, with the teams four hits coming via
Makenna Alexander,
Taya Hopfauf,
Brooklyn House and
Chloe Bethune. The Hawks left seven runners on base.
Tegan Livesay picked up the loss in the circle, dropping to 11-8 on the season. The junior threw 5.2 innings, surrendering nine hits and four runs, with five strikeouts and zero walks.
Tehya Armstrong threw 1.1 innings, giving up four runs and four hits, with one walk and two strikeouts.
How It Happened
Both teams went down 1-2-3 in the first inning, before Omaha scored a run in the top of the second on a Sammy Schmidt double, putting them up 1-0. UND had a chance to strike back in the bottom of the second, when Bethune drew a two-out walk and House singled, advancing Bethune to third.
Aleksia Severson came up with runners on the corners and flied out to right field.
Following a scoreless top of the third,
Brooklyn Morris worked a walk to lead off the bottom half, which was followed by an Alexander to single, as Morris went first to third. Alexander then stole second base to give the Hawks runners on second and third with no outs.
Camryn Lasota then struck out, Hopfauf grounded out to the pitcher and
Katelyn Neumayer struck out swinging, keeping the score at 1-0.
Omaha next did some damage in the sixth inning on RBI singles from Alyson Edwards and Ava Rongisch, totaling three runs in the frame to go up 4-0. The top of the seventh got a bit sloppy, as Armstrong had two outs in the inning with a runner on first. Marra Cramer came to the plate and hit a really high pop-up with circulating winds and the sun, Alexander at third was unable to make the play, going in the book as an infield double. There were runners on second and third.
Omaha turned that into four RBIs across the next two batters, first on an Alyson Edwards two-RBI single, which was followed by a Schmidt two-run home run, giving Omaha an 8-0 lead.
The Mavericks would take the win by an 8-0 margin. Game two of the series will be tomorrow at 3 p.m. on Midco Sports.
For more information on North Dakota Softball, follow on social media @UNDsoftball or visit FightingHawks.com.