Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 The Dominican University softball team took on the Aurora University Spartans on Saturday afternoon in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) series between the top two teams in the conference standings.  The Stars and Spartans split the doubleheader with the Stars taking game one 2-1 and the Spartans topping the Stars 4-3 in game two.
 
The split pushes the Stars to 22-10 on the season and 13-3 in the NACC, one game behind Spartans (20-10, 14-2) in the NACC standings.  Dominican will return to the diamond on Monday, hosting the Benedictine University Eagles for a 3:00 p.m. doubleheader in Forest Park.
 
Game One:  Dominican 2, Aurora 1
 
The Stars' offense gave starting pitcher Dominique Schneider (Lockport, Ill.) all the run support she needed in the first two innings, pushing across a run on Sara Hausl's (St. Charles, Ill.) infield single with two outs in the first and then scoring again in the second as Armani Procter (Chicago, Ill.) and Catherine Conte (Elmwood Park, Ill.) roped back-to-back doubles.
 
The Dominican offense managed just two baserunners after the second, but Schneider held the Aurora offense to just one run on six hits and four walks while picking up the complete-game victory.  Schneider worked out of trouble in nearly every inning, including in the third when the Stars' right-hander cut down a run at the plate, fielding a bunt with a runner at third and flipping to catcher Kimberley Giannini (River Grove, Ill.) who was able to apply the tag and hold on to the ball to cut down what would have been the tying run.
 
Schneider stranded a Spartans' runner every inning, including leaving the tying run at first base after issuing a one-out walk in the top of the seventh.  With the win, the freshman improves to 9-2 in the circle.
 
Offensively, Hausl and Conte logged one hit apiece while driving in the Stars' two runs in back-to-back innings.
 
Game Two:  Aurora 4, Dominican 3
 
Dominican pushed across a pair of early runs again in game two, as Hausl drove a two-run single through the left side of the infield to score Ashley Rea (Lockport, Ill.) and Alyssa Domico (Naperville, Ill.).
 
Aurora climbed in front in the fourth on Steph Starr's three-run home run to left.
 
Dominican answered in the bottom of the fourth as Giannini launched her team-leading fourth home run of the season over the fence in left-center to even the score at 3-3.
 
In the top of the fifth, Aurora's Vanessa Wegner drove the first pitch of the inning out to center to put the Spartans back on top 4-3.
 
Dominican went down in order in the fifth and sixth innings but managed to put the tying and go-ahead runs on base in the seventh on a pair of infield singles but the Spartans' Vanessa Hartzell stranded the runners at second and third with a strikeout to close out the game.
 
Haley Locher (Lisle, Ill.) took the loss in the circle for the Stars, surrendering four runs on five hits and one walk.
 
The Stars outhit the Spartans in the loss, rapping out ten hits led by Procter and Conte who had two hits apiece.