The Aurora University softball team dropped an extra inning contest to Benedictine University 5-4 in 9 innings on Friday afternoon at the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament in Milwaukee, Wis.
AU fell behind early when BU scored four runs in the second inning off starting pitcher
Vanessa Hartzell. BU scored the four runs on four hits.
The Spartans would answer back in the bottom half of the inning though, scoring twice. Freshman
Taylor Moore was hit by a pitch when she led off the inning and with one out,
Lauren Huebner reached on an error. With two outs and Moore and Huebner on second and third, freshman
Mandey Shrader singled to score both runs for a 4-2 score.
After Hartzell started to get back into a groove, the Spartans scored again in the third inning with
Logan Cahill hitting a one out double and then coming around to score on a single from
Vanessa Wegner.
As Hartzell kept the Eagle bats silent, the Spartans had chances in the fourth and sixth innings but left two runners on without scoring in the innings.
The Spartans, trailing by one, headed to their last at bat looking to tie or win the game. With one out, Cahill reached on an error and Moore singled with Cahill moving to third forcing a BU pitching change. Wegner walked to load the bases bring up Huebner with still only one out. Huebner hit a grounder to shortstop which forced Cahill at the plate. Coach
Mike McKenzie called upon
Dani Bestwina to pinch hit and after a long at bat, she drew a walk that scored Moore with the tying run and brought Shrader to the plate. Shrader put a jolt into the crowd when she hit a hard liner but it was hit right at the Eagle shortstop to end the AU rally but sent the game into extra innings.
After a quiet eighth inning, BU got a solo home run for their fifth run with the hit being only the fifth of the game of Hartzell who would end up with nine strikeouts as the tough luck loser. AU would get a runner on in the ninth but stranded her on base, the 13th of the game.
With the loss, AU is now 26-14 overall and will now have to win three games on Saturday, May 3 at the NACC Tournament to claim the automatic berth to the NCAA tournament. The Spartans will take on Concordia Wisconsin at 9:00 a.m. at Alverno College and with a win would face Benedictine again at 11:00 a.m.
