Huskers' Winning Streak Reaches Six

Las Cruces, N.M. ? The 19th-ranked Nebraska softball team fought back from a three-run deficit to rally for its sixth straight win in a 7-3 victory over Loyola-Chicago at the Troy Cox Classic in Las Cruces, N.M. The win improved the Huskers’ record to 6-1 on the season and dropped the Ramblers to 0-3.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

 

Freshman right-hander Jordan Keen (4-0) picked up her fourth victory of the season in relief of sophomore right-hander Jaime Borg. Keen tossed 4.1 innings of scoreless relief, allowing just two hits while striking out a career-high five batters. Making just her second career start, Borg allowed three runs on five hits in 2.2 innings of work.

 

Offensively, NU pounded out 15 hits led by junior KoKo Tacha who recorded a career high three hits in a 3-for-4 effort. Junior Sheena Lawrick extended her season-opening hitting streak to seven straight with a single in the first inning. That singled marked the second time this season Lawrick had reached base safely in seven consecutive at bats. Lawrick finished the night 2-for-4 with a double, an RBI and a run scored.

 

Senior Anne Steffan (3-for-4) and junior Elizabeth Rock (2-for-4) also recorded multi-hit games for NU.

 

Loyola-Chicago scored three runs in the bottom of the third to take a 3-0 lead. Nora Schober Scored on a one-out double by Allison Scanlin and on the play pinch runner Beth Florina was thrown out at home on a great throw by Tacha and a great relay from Steffan at short. Keilah Williams then hit a two-run homer to left field to score Scanlin and knock Borg out of the game.

 

In the top of the fourth the Husker offense finally got on track as NU scored five runs and sent 10 batters to the plate. Junior Trisha Tannahill drew a four-pitch walk to start the inning and sophomore Devin Porter followed with a double to right center to put runners on second and third with no outs. Following a ground out, Tacha reached on a bunt single that scored Tannahill.

 

Senior Kira Boerkircher drove in Porter with a ground out and wound up safe at first following an error on Loyola’s second baseman. Rock singled up the middle and Steffan followed with a two-run double scoring Tacha and Boerkircher to give <?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>Nebraska its first lead at 4-3. Junior Jessica Yoachim then added an RBI single to score Rock and put NU up 5-3.

 

In the top of the sixth, Steffan drew a walk to lead off the inning and stole second where Lawrick drove her in with a one-out double to the gap in right-center field on a 3-0 pitch. Tannahill then drove in Lawrick with a single up the middle to extend the Huskers’ lead to 7-3.

 

Nebraska finished Saturday’s action with a 2-0 record on the day and outscored its opponents 19-9. The Huskers pounded out 17 hits in their first game of the day and added 15 more against Loyola. For the day, NU batted .451 (32-for-71). In the two games, six Huskers recorded at least three hits.

 

The Huskers wrap up play at the Troy Cox Classic at 10 a.m. (CST) on Sunday with a game against host New MexicoState. Live stats for the game can be found on Huskers.com and live video will also be available on HuskersNSide.com, the Nebraska Athletic Department’s premium web site.