OMAHA, Neb. – Omaha softball continues its road swing at the Mizuno Classic in Stillwater, Okla., March 2-4. The Mavericks will play five games over three days against Maine, Saint Francis and host Oklahoma State in their fourth tournament of 2018.
Follow the Mavericks
Links to live stats and video are available on OMavs.com. Fans can also get in-game updated via Twitter by following @OmahaSB.
The Starting Lineup
• Omaha enters the fourth weekend of the season with a 7-8 record following a 2-3 weekend at the Texas A&M Classic.
• UNO is 2-2 all-time against Oklahoma State and will play Saint Francis and Maine for the first time in program history.
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Faith Romero enters the weekend on a six-game hitting streak. She is 6-for-20 with a double and a home run with two RBI.
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Kelly Pattison has a three-game hitting streak, batting .429 average with a home run and six RBI.
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Sydney Hampton leads Omaha with a 6-1 record in 10 appearances (two starts). She is third in The Summit League with a 1.98 ERA.
• Omaha leads The Summit League in stolen bases (18) and times hit by a pitch (12). The Mavericks are second in walks (47) and third in home runs (5), RBI (38) and runs scored (49).
• The Mavericks feature four Oklahoma natives on the roster and three more that attended college in the Sooner state before finding their way to Omaha.
• Omaha's coaching staff also has deep ties to the state of Oklahoma. Head coach
DJ Sanchez and assistant coaches
Dani Dobbs and
Ryan Wondrasek all earned their undergraduate degrees from the University of Oklahoma. Sanchez and Dobbs served as the head coach at St. Gregory's University. Dobbs and Wondrasek are Oklahoma natives.
• Eighteen players have seen playing time in the Mavericks' first 15 games, with seniors
Jessica Nelson and
Crystal Pablo; juniors
Taylor Conkling,
Demi Dobbs,
Savannah Fisher,
Sarrah Mains and
Faith Romero; and freshmen
Aubrey Hacke,
Sydney Hampton and
Halley Jones all making their first career starts.
• UNO's will have a balanced roster in 2018, featuring 10 upperclassmen along with nine underclassmen.
• In the 2018 Summit League Preseason Coaches' Poll, the Mavericks were picked to finish fifth by the league's head coaches.
• Omaha returns six letterwinners in 2018, including four position players with starting experience and one starting pitcher.
• UNO's roster features 13 newcomers, including two seniors, five juniors and six freshmen.
• Omaha plays 28-straight road games before its home-opener against Nebraska on March 13.
• UNO hosts eight home games at Westside Field at Westbrook this season.
• During the fall 2017 semester, Omaha reported a 3.30 team grade point average (GPA). Five Mavericks earned a spot on the Dean's List, including three student-athletes on the Chancellor's List.
• The Mavericks finished the 2017 season with a record of 15-30 (6-8 Summit League) and finished fifth in the league standings.
Scouting the Maine Black Bears
The Black Bears opened their season last weekend at the Seahawk Classic, finishing 3-2. Maine split games with Bucknell (11-1 win/3-0 loss) and UNC-Wilmington (3-1 loss/5-1 win). They also defeated Longwood 6-4.
Rachel Carlson is the team leader with a .500 batting average (10-for-20). Carlson, Alyssa Derrick and Maddie Decker each have a team-leading four RBI. In the circle, Annie Kennedy (1-0, 0.64) and Molly Flowers (1-0, 0.78 ERA) lead the Black Bears.
History vs. Omaha
Sunday will be the first all-time meeting between Omaha and Maine.
Scouting the Saint Francis Red Flash
The Red Flash have started the season .600 with a record of 9-6, going 6-4 in neutral site games.
Sierra McKee leads the team with a batting average of .350. Kassidy Troxell is the team-leader with four home runs and 10 RBI.
Saint Francis has had two pitchers throw this season, Adrian Smith (3-2) with an ERA of 1.46 and Abby Trahan (6-4) with an ERA of 2.45 and 54 strikeouts.
History vs. Omaha
Sunday will be the first all-time meeting between the Mavericks and Red Flash.
Scouting the Oklahoma State Cowgirls
The Cowgirls have started the season .600 with a record of 9-6, and a 1-1 mark against teams in the Top 10.
Rylee Bayless and Vanessa Shippy lead the team with batting averages of .563 and .513 respectively. Sydney Pennington leads OSU with four home runs and 18 RBI.
Oklahoma State has had five pitchers throw this season, including Logan Simunek (1-0) who has a 0.00 ERA, Emmie Robertson (4-3) with an ERA of 2.75 and Samantha Clakley (3-3) with an ERA of 3.97.
History vs. Omaha
The Mavericks are 2-2 all-time against the Cowgirls and 1-0 in the Division I era. The last meeting came in 2013.
Weekend Recap
Omaha softball went 2-3 at last weekend's Texas A&M – Corpus Christi Invitational. The Mavericks split games with the host Islanders and Texas Southern and lost their only matchup against Utah State. UNO defeated Texas A&M – Corpus Christi 2-0 to open the tournament before falling 5-3 to Utah State. Omaha needed extra innings to top Texas Southern 9-8 on Saturday and then fell 6-3 to the Islanders. The Mavericks lost the rematch with Texas Southern on Sunday, 4-3 in eight innings.
On Deck
The Mavericks will play a doubleheader against Coppin State on Thursday, March 8 in Baltimore, Md., and then head to Hampton, Va., for the Hampton University Tournament.
