Box Score
ANGELO, Texas - The Mavericks took two early leads but Emporia State caught up after both of them and then won, 3-2 with a walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the 10th to drop Nebraska-Omaha in the first round of the NCAA II South Central Region tournament at the Angelo State Softball Complex.
The Mavs, playing in their 20th straight NCAA tournament, must now play an elimination game Saturday at 4:30 p.m. against the loser of the No. 1 Angelo State/No. 8 St. Edward's game.
After five scoreless innings by both teams, Jill Peters hit a one-out homer over the left field wall in the bottom of the 10th off UNO reliever
Lindsey Slocum, the Mavs third pitcher of the game.
Playing in 103 degree weather at the start (it dropped to 102 by the end), both teams had chances to score early in the game. Slocum and
Kristi Meneely had a pair of two-out hits for UNO in the first two innings and Jennifer Dace doubled for the Hornets to lead off the second.
The Mavericks struck first when they loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the third.
Ashley Lynch led off the inning with a single to right center. The next two batter's laid down sacrifice bunts and all runners were able to advance safely due to a pair of ESU fielding mistakes.
Treightin Yates reached on an error by the catcher on her bunt and then on
Molly Feichtinger's bunt the Hornets went to third and the throw was late trying to get Lynch.
With the bases loaded,
Amanda Bader was later hit by a pitch to drive in the first run.
The Hornets quickly tied the game in the bottom of the third when Jenna Potter doubled to center field. She later scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Angela Mahan.
The Hornets could have taken the lead after Mahan's RBI. Abby Hughes tripled to right center and then the Mavericks intentionally walked two batters to load the bases with two outs. Lynch then scooped up Aubree Brattin's grounder and stepped on second to end the inning.
The Mavs regained the lead in the fourth inning when Meneely led off with a single.
Katelyn Hinton pinch ran for her and went to second on a sacrifice bunt from
Emma Wright. She advanced another base on a fly-out to right by Lynch and then she later scored on a single from Feichtinger.
Two straight doubles by ESU tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth and then UNO starter
Melissa Negrete was pulled from the game for reliever
Beth Haley. Haley gave up a single but Slocum threw out Jenna Potter, who tried scoring from second on the hit for the second out of the inning. Haley got the next batter to ground out to end the inning.
With two outs in the bottom of the seventh Abby Hughes singled through the left side and then she stole second to put her team in position to win the game. Haley intentionally walked Miranda Campbell and then Dace flew out to right field to bring UNO into its 10th extra-inning game of the year.
Haley ended up pitching five innings and allowed five hits but none of her runners scored. Slocum entered with one out and two on in the ninth and she retired the side. She gave up the solo shot in the 10th to fall to 14-3 this year.
From the sixth inning on, the Mavericks had just one base runner. ESU pitcher Megan Dennis, the reigning national pitcher of the year, went the distance for the Hornets and gave up seven hits with six strikeouts. One of the two runs was earned.
Dell and Meneely had two hits each for UNO and Potter and Ketter had three hits each for ESU.
Negrete allowed the first two Hornet runs as she gave up five hits through 3 1/3 innings. She had UNO's only strikeout of the game.
The Hornets have now beaten UNO three straight times and they will face the ASU/St. Edwards winner at 2 p.m. tomorrow.
