Tournament Central
Box Score

FARMERS BRANCH, Texas - The second-seeded UNO Mavericks fell 3-1 to No. 3 seed Houston Baptist in their first round game at the Great West Conference Softball Tournament at Oran Good Park on Sunday afternoon.

The Mavericks (23-17) will now play an elimination game against fourth-seeded North Dakota (17-27) at 3 p.m. on Sunday. North Dakota lost to top-seeded Utah Valley, 3-2, earlier in the day. Utah Valley (30-25-1) and Houston Baptist (15-31) advanced to a semifinal game at 5:30 p.m.

The Huskies jumped in front in the top of the first inning when Kate Maddock singled home Rebecca Rademacher from third. But the Mavs evened things up in the bottom of the second. Katelyn Hinton drew a walk to open the inning and advanced to second on an illegal pitch by Kendall Stiefel. After advancing to third on a sacrifice bunt by Molly Negrete, Hinton scored on another illegal pitch by Stiefel. The pitch ended Stiefel's day, as Keely Shuler took over in relief.

The deadlock remained through six innings as Shuler and Dana Elsasser each worked their way efficiently through the batting orders. But the Huskies broke the tie in the top of the seventh. Michaela Granchelli opened with a single to right field, and Mac Christensen followed by hustling out a bunt single. Holly Webb sacrifice bunted the runners to second and third, and Callie Herrington's flyout to Hinton in centerfield was deep enough to score Granchelli to make it 2-1. Rademacher then singled to centerfield with two outs, scoring Christensen from second for a 3-1 lead.

Shuler retired the Mavs in order in the bottom of the seventh to close out the win. Shuler went 5.2 innings in relief, allowing just three hits while striking out four. Elsasser (13-9) took the complete-game loss, allowing three runs on eight hits.

Tonya Peterson, Lindsay Redding and Ashley Lynch each had singles for UNO.

Live stats for the UNO and North Dakota game at 3 p.m. are available here.