CHICAGO – The Mount Mary softball team suffered a pair of losses at University of Chicago Friday night, falling 7-0 and 10-2 in six innings at Amos Alonzo Stagg Field.
The Blue Angels fell to 6-24 overall on the season, while UChicago improved to 9-14.
GAME 1 – Chicago 7, MMU 0
The Maroons outhit visiting MMU 12-2 in the opener, cruising to a dominant 7-0 victory.
Junior Taylor Hienbuecher (Sycamore, Ill./Sycamore) and freshman Marissa Heraly (Brillion, Wis./Brillion) were the only Blue Angels to notch a base hit—both singles. Hienbuecher drove a one-out single up the middle in the second, while Heraly's poke to right center came with one out in the seventh.
Chicago manufactured a run in the second inning, before erupting for five runs off five hits and a pair of walks in the fourth.
Freshman Brianna Lupa (Plano, Ill./Plano) took the loss in the circle, falling to 3-13 on the year. Her eight walks issues were a season-high, but she did tally a trio of strikeouts in her 15th complete game.
GAME 2 – Chicago 10, MMU 2 (6 innings)
Mount Mary's offense improved for the nightcap, but four costly errors extended innings for the hosts, as a five-run sixth ended the game early.
After Chicago put two on the board in the first via a homer to left, the Blue Angels showed some gumption in the next half inning. Freshman Sam Allen (Rolling Meadows, Ill./Rolling Meadows) got things going with a one-out single up the middle, her 36th of the year. MMU then took advantage of some Maroon defensive miscues as Hannah Harnsberger (Hillsboro, Ore./Jesuit) and Lupa each reached base via error. A Heraly single to right pushed Allen across to keep the bases loaded, and junior Jacklyn Mozdzen (Wautoma, Wis./Wautoma) took one off the leg for an RBI hit-by-pitch to lock the game at 2-2.
A pair of Mount Mary errors led to another pair of runs for Chicago in the second, and it added one in the fifth and five more in the sixth off five runs and four hits—eventually ending the game on another Blue Angel fielding error.
Offensively, the Blue Angels recorded six hits in the nightcap—all singles. Allen led the way going 2-for-3 at the plate with a run scored, while Heraly, Harnsberger, junior Aislinn Strusz (Aurora, Ill./West Aurora) and senior Kirsten George (Fairborn, Ohio/Fairborn) each added a hit apiece.
Sophomore Kaitlin Gilpin recorded a strikeout in her 5.2 innings of action, giving up 10 hits and seven earned runs.
ON DECK FOR MMU
Mount Mary will return to action for one final tune up against Rockford University Monday evening in a 5 pm & 7 pm double-header.
The Blue Angels will then welcome the quintet of Christopher Newport University (Va.), Finlandia University (Mich.), University of Mary Washington (Va.), Salisbury University (Md.), and Southern Virginia University for the inaugural Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference Softball Championship Thursday-Saturday, May 6-8, at 5 Diamonds at Infinity Fields in Waukesha.
