CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - Omaha softball (2-0, 0-0 Summit League) began the 2025 campaign with a pair of victories inside the UNI-Dome as the Mavericks bested Loyola Chiago 10-0 in the season lid-lifter and the host UNI Panthers later in the day, 13-10.
Omaha faces the Ramblers again tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 8 at 9 a.m. CT, followed by Drake at 11:30 a.m. CT.
Friday's season opener for Omaha saw the long-awaited debut of sophomore pitcher
Maddia Groff in a Mavericks uniform. The Omaha native tossed a complete-game shutout, striking out 14 of 22 batters faced, after transferring to Omaha prior to the fall 2024 semester. Groff allowed just one hit and went three innings without allowing a Ramblers base runner. Omaha's offense got off to a fast start with the defending Summit League champions striking twice in the opening frame with a trio of runs, including a one out RBI single
Katherine Johnson to score two Omaha runners. Johnson would score in the top of the third off a
Haley Wilwerding ground-rule double.
Ava Rongisch added to the scoring bonanza in the fourth with a pair of RBI with a single down the right field line scoring
Sydney Thomason and
Maggie O'Brien. An
Emma Durr triple would score O'Brien for Omaha's seventh run of the ballgame in the top of sixth. Omaha would score three runs in the seventh to seal the victory on Opening Day.
O'Brien finished the outing 1-for-2 with three walks. She scored three of Omaha's 10 runs against Loyola Chicago. The Mavericks tallied four extra-base hits in the opening game (Thomason, Johnson, Wilwerding [2B], Durr [3B]). Rongisch etched three RBI for
Mike Heard's side in the shutout.
Omaha again raced out to a quick offensive start in the first true road game of the 2025 non-conference slate as the Mavericks faced host UNI in the nightcap Saturday. Thomason would earn an RBI on a groundout early on to score
Marra Cramer. A sacrifice fly off the bat of Rongisch would bat in O'Brien to give the Mavericks a quick 2-0 start. An RBI single the other way in the bottom of the opening stanza would be followed by a three-run homer for the Panthers to take a 4-2 lead. Cramer was a large part of the Mavericks' answer with two-run homer to left to score
Rylinn Groff, the first Omaha home run of the season to put Omaha up 5-4 after an earlier RBI single from R. Groff.
After erasing another deficit as the game progressed, a series of errors in the top of the seventh paved the way for Omaha to cement the 13-10 victory over UNI on 14 hits with no errors.
Alyson Edwards earned the victory for Omaha in game two, pitching 2.2 innings of work allowing just one earned run in 13 batters.
Alexis Wiggins and
Grace Hornbuckle started things off for Omaha, combining for seven strikeouts in in just over four innings pitched.
Season tickets for home games at
Connie Claussen Field are on-sale now at
OMavs.com/Tix.
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