NU Winning Streak Reaches Eight

Lincoln ? Senior KoKo Tacha and junior Carmen Kier each drove in three runs as the 18th-ranked Husker softball team rolled to its eighth straight win with a 9-1 run-rule victory over Missouri Western in the second game of a doubleheader Wednesday at Bowlin Stadium. NU (8-1) also won the first game, 3-1.

 

Tacha finished the game 2-for-3 with a career-high two doubles, while Kier went 1-for-3. In the circle, freshman right-hander Molly Hill improved to 5-0 on the year, tossing a complete-game five-hitter and striking out six.

 

Beatrice native Kristi Warneke (1-2) took the loss for Missouri Western (4-4). Warneke surrendered nine runs on 11 hits in 4.1 innings, but only four of the runs were earned.

 

Nebraska got on the board in the bottom of the second with a two-out rally aided by two Missouri Western errors. After the first two hitters were retired, junior Devin Porter reached on a single and freshman Brittany Pascale reached on an error to put runners at second and third. Kier then drove both runners home with a two-run single.

 

Leading 2-0, Nebraska loaded the bases on a walk and an infield single. Junior Jamie Waldecker then hit a grounder that went through the legs of the Griffons’ shortstop Kelsey Wells allowing Kier to come home with the Huskers’ third run of the inning.

 

NU added to its lead an inning later. Freshman Crystal Carwile began the inning with a single and a stolen base and senior Trisha Tannahill followed with another single to put runners at the corners for Tacha. Tacha laced the first pitch she saw to the wall in left field to score Carwile and Tannahill came home all the way from the first with a great slide into home plate to beat the throw.

 

Tacha came home on an RBI ground out from Kier to put the Huskers in front 6-0.

 

Missouri Western cracked the scoreboard in the top of the fourth. The first two Griffons reached and Wells scored on a double off the bat of Lindsey Rizzuti. Missouri Western still had runners on second and third with no outs, before Hill responded by coaxing a pair of ground outs and recording a strikeout to end the inning without any further damage.

 

Nebraska answered the run when Tannahill and Tacha produced back-to-back two-out doubles in the bottom of the fourth.

 

The Huskers closed out the game with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth. Pascale began the inning with a leadoff single and advanced to second on a groundout from Kier. After senior Lizzy Aumua reached on an infield single, she stole second and the throw got away from the second baseman, allowing Pascale to score from third.

 

Aumua then came home on a throwing error from Werneke to wrap up the run-rule victory.

 

Aumua finished 2-for-3 with a walk and was one of eight Huskers to record a hit in the game. Nebraska also stole a season-high five bases in the win.

 

NUreturns to action on Friday at 1 p.m. when the Huskers face Stephen F. Austin at the Best Western Airport Festival in Tulsa, Okla.