ROSEMONT, Ill. – Freshman Marissa Heraly (Brillion, Wis./Brillion) went a perfect 2-for-2 at the plate and junior Aislinn Strusz (Aurora, Ill./West Aurora) added a pair of hits of her own, but the Mount Mary University softball team fell to Dominican University Wednesday night, 7-1, at The Parkway Bank Sports Complex.
The loss drops the MMU to 6-22 overall while the Stars improved to 9-16.
Mount Mary got things going in the opening frame, as sophomore Brianna Ecker (Fond du Lac, Wis./Stockbridge) and freshman Brianna Lupa (Plano, Ill./Plano) drew a back-to-back two-out walks. Facing a 2-1 count, Heraly drove a line shot up the middle to score Ecker from second. Junior Taylor Hienbuecher (Sycamore, Ill./Sycamore) followed up with a seeing-eye single to deep short, but an ensuing strikeout ended the inning with the bases loaded.
Dominican would tally two runs on a pair of deep shots in the second inning, then add four more in the fifth and another in the sixth.
Strusz singled in the third, then added a double in the fifth—her ninth of the season—to finish the day 2-for-4 at the plate. Sophomore Kaitlyn Gilpin (Lyons, Ill./Lyons Township) added a single in the fourth, Heraly picked up her second single in the sixth, and junior Jacklyn Mozdzen (Wautoma, Wis./Wautoma) led off with a single in the top of the seventh, but the Blue Angels could not string together a response.
Gilpin got the starting nod in the circle, giving up six earned runs on 13 hits. She also recorded three strikeouts while falling to 1-6 in her 13th appearance this season.
ON DECK FOR MMU
MMU will return to action on the South Side of Chi-town Friday for a two-game series at University of Chicago. The two squads met earlier this season at the same Amos Alonzo Stagg Field with the host Maroons scoring a 7-4, 4-2 sweep. First pitch for game one Friday is slated for 3:00 pm.
