AUBURN, Ala. - The Omaha softball team topped Marshall, 9-6, but fell to host Auburn, 4-2, on Saturday at the Tiger Invitational.
The Mavs are now 4-3 on the season. UNO was originally scheduled to begin play on Friday but had its flight to Auburn delayed until Friday night because of winter weather in the South. The Mavs arrived in Auburn late Friday night before gearing up for play Saturday afternoon.
Omaha will play a pair of games on Sunday to wrap up their stay in Auburn. At 9 a.m., the Mavs will face Loyola Chicago. UNO will then play Western Illinois in a non-league matchup at 11 a.m.
Omaha 9, Marshall 6The Mavs broke a 5-5 tie with four runs in top of the fifth inning to earn a 9-6 win over Marshall in the Mavs' opener at the tournament.
Marshall dropped to 1-3. The Thundering Herd reached the NCAA Tournament last season after winning the Conference USA Tournament.
Allie Mathewson was 3-for-4 with a homer, double, two runs and three RBI.
Sydney Hames was 2-for-5 with three RBI.
Tara Trede was 3-for-4 with two runs and an RBI, and
Nicole Warren was 2-for-4 with a run and RBI.
Cheyenne Baxter (1-0) earned the win in relief. She went 3.0 innings and allowed two earned runs on four hits and one walk with one strikeout.
Kat Barrow started the game and threw 3.1 innings with four earned runs on three hits and two walks.
Mathewson began the game with a double, and after
Lia Mancuso and
Amber Lutmer walked, Hames singled up the middle to score Mathewson for the 1-0 lead.
Tonya Peterson then drew a bases-loaded walk to score Mancuso.
Shaelynn Braxton's solo homer off of Barrow in the bottom of the first cut it to 2-1, but the Mavs answered with three runs in the top of the third to make it 5-1. Warren doubled home Peterson from second, Trede singled home Warren, and Mathewson added a single to score Trede from second for a 5-1 advantage.
However, Marshall came back with a four-run fourth inning to tie the game 5-5. Alyssa Cook's three-run homer off Baxter made it 5-5 after Barrow left the game.
But the Mavs showed great resiliency, coming back with four runs in the next inning to regain control. Mathewson smacked her first home run of the year to score Trede for a 7-5 lead. Mancuso singled and
Campbell Ditto walked, setting up Hames for a two-run double down the left field line to make it 9-5.
Marshall pulled one run back in the bottom of the sixth, but Baxter escaped the inning relatively unscathed. In the bottom of the seventh, with one out and runners on first and third,
Dana Elsasser came in to finish the game out. She did just that, getting a groundout and strikeout for the victory.
Auburn 4, Omaha 2Auburn scored three unanswered runs for the victory after the Mavs held a 2-1 lead through four innings.
Dana Elsasser yielded one run in the top of the first, but
Amber Lutmer cranked a two-run homer in the bottom of the first to score
Lia Mancuso for a 2-1 Maverick lead.
Elsasser allowed no more hits until the fifth inning, but that's when the Tigers notched a pair of two-out singles to take a 3-2 lead. Auburn added one more run in the top of the seventh to make it 4-2.
Auburn pitcher Marcy Harper (4-0) quieted the Maverick bats after the first inning. The Mavs had two hits in the first inning (Lutmer and
Tonya Peterson) but just one after that, an infield single by Mancuso in the third.
Elsasser (3-1) lost for the first time this season despite allowing four earned runs on just five hits with four walks and two strikeouts.
