Final Stats
DENTON, Texas - The UNO softball team continued its perfect start to the season with a 9-2 win over the Dayton Flyers in its opening game of the North Texas Lovelace Invitational at Lovelace Stadium.
The Mavs improved to 6-0 with the win, their best start to a season since 2002. Dayton fell to 0-2 on the season after opening its season earlier in the day with a 3-0 loss to Iowa. The Mavs face host North Texas at 7 p.m. tonight.
Leadoff hitter
Allie Mathewson homered for the fifth time this season and finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs.
Molly Negrete went 2-for-5 with two RBIs and a run scored, and
Campbell Ditto scored twice while driving in a run.
Lindsay Redding went 2-for-2 with a run scored. Sophomore
Kat Barrow improved to 3-0 in the circle. Barrow took a shutout into the bottom of the seventh inning and finished with two earned runs allowed on seven hits and three walks. Barrow struck out four in the game before being replaced by freshman
Kayla Wyatt for the final 0.2 innings. Wyatt retired both batters she faced to cap the win.
The Mavs took a 3-0 lead after two innings with just one hit to their credit. In the first, Redding walked and stole second before Ditto walked. Both moved up a base after a wild pitch, then
Amber Lutmer walked to load the bases. Negrete hit a fielder's choice that forced Lutmer out at second, but Redding scored on the play. Ditto later scored on a walk drawn by
Tonya Peterson and the Mavs led 2-0 after two. UNO tacked on another run in the second when
Mara Eeman walked and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by
Tara Trede. Redding singled to put runners at the corners, and Ditto walked to load the bases. After a Dayton pitching change, Lutmer drew a walk to score Eeman for a 3-0 lead.
Barrow continued to shut down the Flyers, and the Mavs doubled their lead in the fifth inning with three more runs. Negrete doubled and after Eeman walked with two outs, Trede singled home Negrete. Trede advanced to second and Eeman advanced to third on the throw, and Mathewson singled to right field to score both to make it 6-0.
In the top of the seventh, Mathewson hit a solo shot to left field with one out gone for her team-leading fifth dinger of the season, then freshman pinch-hitter
Bailey Schulenberg singled for the first hit of her career and advanced to second after a wild pitch. Ditto doubled to center to score Schulenberg, and Negrete later singled to score Ditto.
The Flyers struck for two runs in the bottom of the seventh, but Wyatt came on in relief of Barrow and closed out the win with a groundout and pop up to Peterson at shortstop.
UNO outhit Dayton 9-7 overall but drew 12 walks to just three for the Flyers.
