In a battle between one and two in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) softball standings on Friday afternoon, it was the Dominican University Stars sweeping a doubleheader from the front-running Aurora University Spartans at the Ballpark at Rosemont. Freshman
Sydney Kuderna (Naperville, Ill.) tossed a total of nine innings for the day, picking up wins in both ends of the doubleheader to move to 13-1 on the year.
The wins locked up a spot in the 2016 NACC Softball Tournament for Dominican. The Stars are scheduled to close out the 2016 regular season on Saturday afternoon, hosting the Benedictine University Eagles for a NACC series at Dominican's home field in Forest Park.
Game One: Dominican 4, Aurora 2
Dominican University staked Kuderna to a 2-0 lead after two innings thanks to two-out RBI in each of the first two frames.
Ali Woitovich (Downers Grove, Ill.) looped a single to right-center in the first to score
Gabby Curran (Elmhurst, Ill.) and then
Abby Maike (Savanna, Ill.) plated
Catherine Conte (Elmwood Park, Ill.) with two away in the bottom of the second, slapping a single through the left side of the infield.
Aurora answered in the top of the third, evening the score at 2-2 after loading the bases with just one out. With the infield pulled in, Aurora's Stephanie Starr and Aimee Raynor drove in a run each on back-to-back fielder's choices.
The Stars' offense answered in the bottom of the frame when Sara Hausl led off the frame by legging out a double on a flare into right field. An out later,
Ali Woitovich (Downers Grove, Ill.) roped a liner off the fence in centerfield to push across Hausl and put Dominican back on top.
After a pair of scoreless frames, Dominican tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth, capitalizing on an Aurora error to lead off the inning. After
Alyssa Domico (Naperville, Ill.) and Conte singled to load the bases, Maike came through with another clutch two-out RBI, singling to center to score Woitovich.
Aurora put the tying run on the bases in the top of the seventh but Kuderna got Larkin Langston to roll into a fielder's choice before Elaine Walker bounced back to Kuderna for the final out of the game.
Dominican outhit the Spartans 9-6 in the winning effort. Woitovich, Conte and Maike collected two hits apiece while Domico, Hausl and Curran each logged one hit.
In the circle, Kuderna scattered six hits and four walks over seven innings, allowing just two runs in her team-best sixth complete-game of the season.
Game Two: Dominican 9, Aurora 8
The Spartans committed a pair of costly errors to in the bottom of the seventh, allowing Conte to plate the game-tying run when she singled through the right side of the infield before
Gabi Alfaro (Aurora, Ill.) laid down a squeeze bunt to push across the winning run.
The Stars used a five-run bottom of the second to open a 5-2 lead after two innings and led 7-3 after three before the Spartans rallied back, evening the score at 7-7 before Dominican head coach
Cristina Lukas went back to Kuderna in the circle.
In Kuderna's second inning of work, the Spartans strung together three hits to take an 8-7 lead into the last of the seventh, setting the stage for the drama that followed in the bottom of the inning.
Nine different players had hits in the win for Dominican, including an inside the park home run for Hausl in the five-run second.
