Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – After coming away with a win in the final inning of the opener of the 2013 Mizuno Invitational hosted by UC-Riverside, the IUPUI softball team looked to continue its winning ways with games against Buffalo and Southern Utah on Saturday, March 9. IUPUI got halfway towards improving to 3-0 on the tournament with a 10-2 win over Buffalo in its opener on Saturday, but a 3-1 extra-inning setback against the Thunderbirds finished off a 1-1 day for the Jags.

The split on Saturday kept the Jags two games below .500 at 7-9 overall.

Ali Mosier led the Jaguars offensive attack for the day going 3-for-5 with two home runs and six RBIs in the opener against the Bulls, before accounting for IUPUI’s lone RBI against the Thunderbirds.

IUPUI 10, Buffalo 2
Both teams failed to score through two innings of play before the Jaguars scored the first runs of the game in the third.

Angela Bartucci started the frame off with a walk, before moving to third base two batters later on a double down the right field line from Morgan Schlobohm. A one-out, RBI single off the bat of Kelsey Rupert plated Bartucci and kept runners on the corners with one out, before Mosier belted a three-run homer to right-center field, the first of her career, to open up a 4-0 IUPUI advantage.

The Bulls cut their deficit in half during the next half inning courtesy of two runs, but IUPUI would get those two runs back in the fifth.

With two runners on and two out in the fifth, Bartucci came through with a two-RBI double to left field to pad the Jags lead back to four, 6-2.

Cassie Vodde continued to keep Buffalo off-balance on the mound to give the Jags more opportunities to increase its lead.

Schlobohm started the sixth with a lead-off single and quickly rounded the bases and scored on a triple from Rupert to move the IUPUI lead to five, 7-2. Mosier drove in her fourth run of the game during the next at-bat as her bunt single scored Rupert from third, upping the lead to 8-2.

After Vodde registered another 1-2-3 inning in the sixth, Mosier came through with her fifth and sixth RBIs of the day courtesy of a two-run homer to left field as IUPUI’s advantage ballooned to 10-2.

From that point, Vodde had no trouble putting away the Bulls in the seventh to close out her first career complete game and the eight-run victory.

Mosier went 3-for-5 with 6 RBI, while Rupert and Schlobohm also registered multi-hit games with two apiece.

Vodde went 7.0 innings giving up six hits and two earned runs while striking out three.

Southern Utah 3, IUPUI 1

The second game for the Jags was a pitcher’s duel from the start.

Nikki Thomas gave up two hits to the Thunderbirds in the first inning before retiring 18 of the next 20 batters, with the only two Southern Utah batters reaching base by a hit-by-pitch in the fourth and a single in the seventh.

IUPUI had a pair of good opportunities to score in the fourth with runners on first and third with one out, and in the sixth with a runner on third and two outs, but both opportunities were squandered keeping it scoreless.

The Jags had one final opportunity to win the game in the seventh, but they were unable to capitalize on a lead-off single resulting in the game going to extra innings.

 In the eighth, Southern Utah was the first to strike, and it did so in a big way via a three-run homer.

The Jags brought the tying run to the plate in Mosier in the eighth, but she lined into a double play, which scored Rupert, before a strike out ended the game.

The Jaguars will get another chance to play the Thunderbirds as they conclude the Mizuno Invitational on Sunday, March 10, against Southern Utah at Noon EST.