Box Score Kaitlin Barajas (Dyer, Ind.) belted a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the fourth for the Stars, sparking a six-run rally as the Dominican University softball team knocked off their neighborhood rival, the Concordia University Chicago Cougars, 8-0 in an elimination game of the 2013 Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) Softball Tournament.
 
Emily Mahoney (Crystal Lake, Ill.) tossed four shutout innings, surrendering just two hits while striking out eight to move to 21-7 on the season.  After giving up a two-out single in the top of the first, Mahoney retired nine straight before giving up a two-out single to Jenni Jensen who was stranded at second when Mahoney struck out Allison Bochat to end the fourth.
 
Dominican got on the board in the bottom of the third as Sara Hausl (St. Charles, Ill.) lined a double into the gap to bring home Allie Evans (Greenwood, Ind.).  Hausl then scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Jessica Wood (West Chicago, Ill.) to put the Stars on top 2-0 after three.
 
Barajas’ team-leading seventh round trip of the season sparked the Stars’ offense, scoring six runs on five hits in the inning, including a two-run double by Andrea Pinarski (Goshen, Ind.) and an RBI single by Mahoney to push across the eighth run of the game.
 
Dominican improves to 29-12 on the season and 2-1 in the NAC Tournament, returning to the diamond at 3:00 p.m. to continue to fight for its playoff life as they take on the Concordia University Wisconsin Falcons.  The winner advances to the third and final day of the conference tournament while the loser’s season comes to a close.