The Dominican University softball team dropped a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) doubleheader to their River Forest rivals, the Concordia Chicago Cougars, on Wednesday afternoon. The Stars surrendered four home runs in the losses, dropping Dominican to 19-7 overall and 7-3 in the NACC.
Dominican will be back in action this weekend, entertaining the Rockford University Regents and Edgewood College Eagles for conference series. On Saturday, the Regents visit Dominican in Forest Park before the Eagles come to take on the Stars at the Stadium at the Ballpark in Rosemont.
Game One: Concordia Chicago 6, Dominican 4 The Cougars roped three home runs, including a two-run home run by Jenni Jenson that broke a 4-4 tie in the bottom of the fifth and proved to be the game-winner.
The Stars twice battled back in the game, erasing a three-run deficit after Allie Bochat's three-run home run for the Cougars in the bottom of the first. Dominican drew even in the fourth when
Alyssa Domico's (Naperville, Ill.) RBI single scored
Catherine Conte (Elmwood Park, Ill.) and three batters later
Sara Hausl (St. Charles, Ill.) plated the tying run with a sacrifice fly.
In the home half of the fourth, Concordia's Michele Alexander belted a solo home run to left to put the Cougars back ahead 4-3 after four innings.
The Stars drew even in the top of the fifth when Conte singled to right center to score
Kaitlyn Tripp (Imperial, Mo.) who had singled to start the frame. After a sacrifice pushed Tripp into scoring position, Conte came through with the RBI single with one out.
Ali Woitovich (Downers Grove, Ill.) followed with a single up the middle but the Stars stranded both when
Lindsey Dudek (Posen, Ill.) went down on strikes to end the inning.
Haley Locher (Lisle, Ill.) took over in the circle for starting pitcher
Michele Behrens (Frankfort, Ill.) to start the bottom of the fifth and Locher got the first two hitters she faced before Bochat worked a walk ahead of Jensen who drove a 1-0 pitch over the fence in left center.
After Locher got the next hitter, Dominican put the first two hitters on in the top of the sixth but
Marissa Burns (Shorewood, Ill.) failed to push the runners over, popping up her bunt attempt for the first out in the inning. Tripp, who was 2-for-4 in the game with an RBI, drove a ball deep to left that was caught at the wall in foul territory by Emilia Vowell for the second out of the inning.
Armani Procter (Chicago, Ill.) followed with another deep fly ball to left that Vowell tracked down in foul ground to end the threat.
Locher worked around a leadoff single in the bottom of the sixth but Dominican managed just one runner in the seventh when Domico reached on an error before
Allie Evans (Greenwood, Ind.) bounced out to the pitcher to secure the win for the Cougars.
Locher falls to 5-5 on the season, surrendering just two runs on two hits over two innings. Behrens received no decision in her tenth start of the season, lasting four innings and giving up four runs on five hits and one walk.
Hausl was 3-for-3 at the plate in the loss while Conte, Woitivich and Tripp each went 2-for-4 as the Stars managed 11 hits, but just one extra-base hit.
Game Two: Concordia Chicago 7, Dominican 2 The Cougars scored five runs in the bottom of the fifth, capitalizing on a pair of Dominican errors in the inning to open a 7-1 lead en route to the sweep.
The Stars managed just six hits offensively, two each for Procter and
Kaitlin Barajas (Dyer, Ind.).
Sarah Slouber (Willow Springs, Ill.) suffered her first loss of the season, falling to 5-1. Slouber was tagged with seven runs, four earned, on ten hits and two walks while striking out four over 4.1 innings of work.
