Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 The Aurora University Spartan softball team traveled to previously undefeated University of Chicago Maroons on Saturday, April 5, 2014. AU fell in game one 5-3 and then gave the Maroons their first loss in 2014 with a 5-0 Spartan win.

Game One
Univ. of Chicago  5
Aurora University  3

Chicago got the games first runs, scoring once in the first inning with four hits off AU starting pitcher Vanessa Hartzell and again in the third inning for a 2-0 lead.

Spartan freshman Laura Dierking put AU on the board in the top of the fourth with a home run to lead off the inning and fellow freshman Mandey Schrader homered in the sixth inning to tie the game.

In the bottom of the sixth, Chicago struck again. With two outs and one runner on, who had reached on a Hartzell error, Chicago collected three straight hits to score three runs for a 5-2 lead.

AU would score once in the top of the seventh but left two on base. Steph Starr led off with a double and scored on a single from Logan Cahill.

Hartzell claimed the loss as she allowed all five runs, two earned and struck out four.

Game Two
Aurora University  5
Univ. of Chicago  0

Game two saw the Spartans come up with big hits and starting pitcher Natalie Zanella wiggled out of numerous jams for the win. Chicago out hit the Spartans 12 to seven in the game.

With Zanella keeping the Maroons off the scoreboard in the first two innings, the AU offense answered with a four run inning in the third. With two outs, Lauren Huebner tripled and scored on a double by Schrader. Schrader then scored on a double by Dierking for a 2-0 lead. After Dierking advanced to third on a wild pitch, senior Sarah Clauser hit a two-run home run to left fo a 4-0 Spartan lead.

That lead was all Zanella needed as she scattered seven hits over the remaining five innings.

The freshmen combo of Dierking and Schrader teamed up in the fifth inning to give AU an insurance run as Schrader single and then scored on a single from Dierking.

With the split, AU is now 8-8 overall and 2-0 in the NACC. Next action for the Spartan softball team comes on Sunday, April 6 when they travel to Marian University. Game one is set for 12:00 p.m. in Fond du lac, Wis.