Box Score The Dominican University softball team came up on the wrong side of a 7-4 decision in nine innings, giving up three unearned runs to the Concordia University Wisconsin Falcons in the top of the ninth to bow out of the 2013 Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) Softball Tournament on Saturday afternoon.
 
Trailing 4-2 with one out in the bottom of the sixth, Kaitlin Barajas (Dyer, Ind.) blasted her team-leading eighth home run of the season, collecting her third and fourth RBI of the NAC Tournament.
 
Emily Mahoney (Crystal Lake, Ill.) then pitched around a bases-loaded jam with one out in the top of the seventh, getting Mariah Giesseman to pop out to Sara Hausl (St. Charles, Ill.) at short before Alyssa Robison bounced out to Andrea Pinarski (Goshen, Ind.) to end the threat.
 
Dominican went down in order in the bottom of the seventh and Mahoney had to pitch around a two-out double by Jessica Liszka in the Falcons’ half of the eighth.
 
After the Stars went quietly in the bottom of the eighth, Stephanie Kramer led off the top of the ninth with a single to right for the Falcons.  After a sacrifice bunt pushed Kramer to second, Abbie Goetsch flied out to Melissa Summaria (Algonquin, Ill.) in left for the second out of the inning.  After Giesseman drew a walk, Robison hit a fly ball to right-centerfield that Armani Procter (Chicago, Ill.) tracked down but could not hang on to as Kramer and Giesseman came across to score.  Robison then scored on another Dominican error to put the Falcons ahead by three heading to the last of the ninth.
 
In the Stars’ half of the ninth, Allie Evans (Greenwood, Ind.) hit a two-out single up the middle before Hausl popped out to end the ballgame.
 
Barajas finished the day 2-for-4 at the plate with a double, a home run and two RBI to lead the Stars offensively while Jessica Wood (West Chicago, Ill.) went 2-for-3 with a pair of singles.  Barajas finished the NAC Tournament 6-for-12 with a 1.167 slugging percentage with two doubles and two home runs.
 
Mahoney was charged with seven runs, only four earned, on ten hits and tying a season-high with seven walks while striking out four.  Mahoney’s record fell to 21-8 on the year.
 
The Stars’ season comes to a close, going 29-13 on the year.  Mahoney closes out the 2013 campaign with 251 strikeouts, ten off the NAC single season mark of 261 set by Anna Snyder back in 2010.