Omaha Drops Home Opener to New Mexico State, 14-6
Mar 21, 2017 | Softball
OMAHA, Neb. āĀ The Omaha softball team fell 14-6 in six innings to New Mexico State Tuesday afternoon in its home opener.Ā
Kayla Green (6-8) earned the win for NMSU, throwing 3.1 innings allowing four runs ā three earned ā on eight hits and a walk with a strikeout.Ā Samaria Diaz pitched 2.2 innings in relief to pick up the save.Ā Sophomore Laura Roecker (5-9) took the loss, surrendering nine runs ā seven earned ā on 10 hits and two walks with one strikeout.
Seniors Lia Mancuso (2-for-4, two stolen bases, one run) and Lizzie Noble (2-for-4, double, RBI) had multi-hit showings, while freshman Kaitlynn Hunt finished 2-for-2 with a triple and two runs scored.Ā Freshman Hailey Bartz went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI.Ā Junior Kelly Pattison knocked out her fourth home run with a solo shot in the fifth.
New Mexico State totaled 18 hits for the day, led by three apiece from Caity Szczesny (3-for-4, three runs scored), Kelsey Horton (3-for-4, one double, two RBI, three runs scored) and Fahren Glackin (3-for-4, one double, five RBI).Ā Kaitlyn Rubio finished 2-for-4 with two home runs and four RBI.
New Mexico State tallied three runs on four hits and an error in the top of the first.Ā The Aggies started the game with a pair of infield hits and scored their first run on an error.Ā Later in the inning, Glackin singled through the left side for an RBI followed by an RBI double from Rubio for a 3-0 lead.
Omaha answered with a run in the bottom of the second.Ā Hunt hit a one-out triple to right field and came into score on an RBI single from Bartz to close the gap to 3-1.
The Aggies extended their lead with a four-hit, two-run third inning.Ā Szczesny and Horton had back-to-back singles to put two on, and Glackin's RBI single scored both runners to make it 5-1.
UNO got two runs back in the bottom half of the frame on two hits.Ā Mancuso led off with a single and then stole second before senior Nicole Warren walked.Ā Ā After a Pattison bunt had moved both runners into scoring position, freshman Vicky Kinney lofted a sacrifice fly that Mancuso.Ā Then junior Kylie Schwarting hit an RBI single to score Warren, trimming the lead to 5-3..
Nikki Butler hit a solo home run to lead off the fourth inning as New Mexico State increased its lead to 6-3.Ā UNO responded with a run on two hits and an error in the bottom of the frame.Ā Hunt hit a one-out single and advanced on a double from Bartz.Ā An error on Noble's fly ball allowed Hunt to score, which cut the score to 6-4.
After getting the first two outs of the inning, Rubio hit her first home run of the game pushing the lead to 7-4.Ā Omaha responded again with a solo home run from Pattison in the fifth, making the score 7-5.
New Mexico State broke the game open in the top of the sixth with seven runs on five hits.Ā Horton, Glackin and Rubio each drove in two runs in the inning as the Aggies lead grew to 14-5. Ā Noble opened the home half of the inning with a double down the left field line.Ā Two batters later, she came in on a wild pitch.Ā Diaz was able to get Pattison to fly out to end the game.
The Mavericks are now 9-19 (0-0 Summit League), while the Aggies improve to 10-14.
Omaha returns to the road tomorrow, visiting Nebraska on Wednesday, March 22.Ā First pitch is set for 3 p.m. at Bowlin Stadium in Lincoln, Neb., and links to live stats, audio and video are available on OMavs.com.
