KANSAS CITY, MO. - Maddia Groff earned her league-leading 17th win as the Mavericks swept their second straight Summit League series with a 3-1 win at Kansas City's Urban Youth Academy Sunday. Omaha (29-9, 9-3) has won eight games in a row and holds a game-and-a-half lead over second-place SDSU in the Summit League standings.
The Mavs return home for a three-game Summit League series against South Dakota, April 18-19 at
Connie Claussen Field. Saturday's softball doubleheader will coincide with a 50th anniversary celebration of Omaha's 1975 AIAW National Championship. All Summit League softball games are broadcast on the Summit League Network.
Groff lowered her league-leading ERA to 1.48 with her 11th complete game. Groff, who entered the game ranked second nationally in K-to-BB ratio (177-14), struck out five and walked one. Ellana Navarros's walk to lead-off the third ended a string of 35 innings pitched without allowing a base on balls, dating to March 26th. In 44 2/3 Summit League innings, Groff has walked only two batters while striking out 57.
Omaha rightfielder
Sammy Schmidt turned in two defensive gems, diving for a fly ball in foul territory for the first out of inning four and throwing out the lead-off hitter in the seventh on what appeared to be a single to right. The Mavericks played error-free softball for the eighth consecutive game, their .980 fielding percentage entering the day ranked ninth in NCAA Division I, leading the Summit League.
Omaha scored first for the eighth consecutive game on back-to-back one-out doubles by
Katherine Johnson and
Sammy Schmidt to take a 1-0 lead in the second inning.
The Mavericks capitalized on Kansas City miscues as they built a lead. After an error to start the third,
Sydney Thomason delivered a two-out double to score
Rylee White and give the Mavs a 2-0 lead. Then with runners on the corners in the sixth, rightfielder Gianna Lickel dropped
Haley Wilwerding's fly ball, allowing
Rylinn Groff to score and give Omaha a 3-0 lead.
The Roos put runners in scoring position in three different innings against Groff, finally getting on the board in the sixth on a two-out double by Leilani Bustamante to cut the Omaha lead to 3-1.
Kansas City (4-32, 1-11) dropped their 13th straight game, despite a solid starting performance from losing pitcher Riley Bebb (6 IP, 6H, 1 ER, 2 BB).
Omaha hosts South Dakota for two games on Saturday starting at 2:00 p.m. CT, featuring the 50th anniversary celebration of Omaha's 1975 AIAW National Championship. Sunday's finale, the Mavericks' last conference home game of the season, is Senior Day at
Connie Claussen Field. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. CT.
The final regular season home game of the season is Tuesday night at 6:00 p.m. CT, sponsored by Mutual of Omaha. Omaha closes out the regular season with five road games heading to the Summit League Championship May 7-10 in Brookings, SD.
Links to live statistics and streaming video can be found on the softball
schedule page at OMavs.com.
Season tickets for home games at
Connie Claussen Field are on-sale now at
OMavs.com/Tix.
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Instagram,
@OmahaSB.
