OMAHA, Neb. – Omaha softball got a two-run homer from
Sydney Thomason in the first inning and the Mavericks made it stand up from there, holding off South Dakota for a 2-1 victory in a Summit League matchup Saturday afternoon at
Connie Claussen Field as Omaha celebrated Senior Day.
The Mavericks (32-9, 12-3) have now won 11-straight games and have swept their last three conference foes. Omaha leads the Summit League standings by 1.5 games over St. Thomas (26-16) and South Dakota State (24-20), both of whom are 9-3 in league action.
After
Maddia Groff set the Yotes (24-20, 4-8) down in order in the top of the first,
Rylinn Groff got a one-out single to bring Thomason to the plate. Thomason then drove a pitch over the center field wall for her 12th homer of the year, giving Omaha an early 2-0 lead.
It stayed 2-0 as
Maddia Groff kept South Dakota in check, not allowing any hits for the first 3.2 innings and not allowing more than one baserunner for the first five innings. Groff worked out of a two-on, one-out jam in the top of the sixth, getting a strikeout and flyout to keep the Mavericks ahead, 2-0.
South Dakota got a run in the seventh, as a two-out double by Abi Brown scored Madison Evans, who had led off the inning with a triple. However, a flyout to
Sammy Schmidt in right field ended the Yotes rally and gave Omaha a hard-fought conference win.
Katherine Johnson went 2-for-3 with a double and triple and was the only Omaha player to finish with more than one hit. Along with Thomason's homer,
Maggie O'Brien, Rylinn Goff, and Schmidt each singled for the Mavericks in the win.
Maddia Groff (20-4) got the win for the Mavericks, allowing one run on five hits with 11 strikeouts and one walk. In the three-game series against the Yotes, Groff picked up all three wins, allowing two runs on nine hits with 22 strikeouts and one walk in 15.2 innings.
The final regular season home game for Omaha comes Tuesday night, April 22 against Creighton at 6 p.m. CT, sponsored by Mutual of Omaha, and will be broadcast live on the Summit League Network. Omaha closes out the regular season with five road games before heading to the Summit League Championship May 7-10 in Brookings, S.D.
Links to live statistics and streaming video can be found on the softball schedule page at OMavs.com.
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