Posts by Marjie Ducey

UNO coach Jeanne Scarpello can finish the season with her 600th victory if the Mavericks sweep Oakland this weekend.

Scarpello is 597-187-1 in 14 years.

The teams, which are meeting for the first time, play a doubleheader at 1 p.m. Friday and finish with an 11 a.m. game Saturday.

The University of Nebraska at Omaha (34-6, 12-2) is second in the Summit League but is not eligible for the conference tournament until 2015-16.

The Mavs will clinch at least second place with one victory against Oakland (6-21-1, 1-13).

To win the title, UNO would need to sweep Oakland and have unbeaten North Dakota State (15-0) be swept at home by South Dakota (11-5). The Bison have won the title the past four years.

The Mavericks …

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Creighton can wrap up the regular-season Missouri Valley title and the top seed in the league tournament with a sweep of Wichita State this weekend.

They play a doubleheader Saturday and a single game Sunday at the CU Sports Complex. First pitch both days is at noon.

The Jays (27-16, 13-6) lead the Valley, percentage points ahead of Drake (28-19, 14-7). CU has a .684 percentage in league games while Drake is at .667.

After dropping two games Tuesday at Drake, the Jays enter the weekend on a three-game slide, their longest of the season. Wichita State (18-30, 9-13) has won just two conference games on the road but swept Creighton the last time the teams met in Omaha in 2011.

The Bluejays will honor …

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Creighton hosts Southern Illinois in a doubleheader Saturday and a single game Sunday at the CU Sports Complex. Both start at noon.

The Bluejays (24-11, 10-2) are in first place in the Missouri Valley. The Salukis are 19-22 and 7-8.

Creighton has won nine of its last 11 games and is 5-2 at home.

With six RBIs last weekend, senior Amy Baker brought her career total to 162 and eclipsed the Valley career RBI record of 157.

She’s extended her streak of safely reaching base to 33 consecutive games, starting with San Diego State on opening day Feb. 7.

Baker has posted a hit in 24 games. In the other games, she’s drawn a walk.

Leadoff hitter Blair Lowe homered twice last weekend against Indiana …

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The Creighton softball team takes to the road to play Indiana State after a successful month at home in which the Jays went 5-2.

The teams will play a doubleheader Saturday and a single game Sunday, each at 11 a.m.

The Bluejays (21-11, 7-2) are perched atop the Valley standings after taking two of three games from Bradley last weekend. Indiana State (14-24, 3-9 MVC) split a pair of midweek games against IUPUI.

Creighton has won eight of its last 11.

Senior Amy Baker led the CU offense last week, hitting .444 in four starts while claiming the MVC career home run record outright with a pair of solo shots against Bradley. She moved to within one of tying the MVC career runs batted in …

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No. 18 Nebraska faces a tough series this weekend with Wisconsin.

The Badgers, who fell out of the national rankings this week, lead the Big Ten with a 1.55 ERA and 75 stolen bases, rank second with a .324 batting average, .469 slugging percentage and .396 on-base percentage and are third with a .966 fielding percentage.

All three Wisconsin pitchers own an ERA below 1.75. Ace Cassandra Darrah is 16-4 with a 1.74 ERA in 136.2 innings.

NU right-hander Emily Lockman is 11-2 with a 1.35 ERA, which leads the Big Ten and ranks 20th nationally. Ace Tatum Edwards is 17-6 with a 2.04 ERA. She’s 12-0 at home in her career.

The Huskers (28-8, 6-2) sit in third place in the Big Ten standings, …

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The Creighton softball team has been off since March 16 because of weather issues, but the Bluejays have turned that into a positive.

“It really allows us to kind of recuperate and work on the things we needed to work on,” senior Ashley Frutos said. “A lot of us are just anxious to get back on the field.”

After playing its first 25 games away from home, CU hosts Northern Iowa in a three-game Missouri Valley Conference series this weekend at the CU Sports Complex.

The games were originally scheduled for Northern Iowa’s Robinson Dresser Field in Cedar Falls. But due to poor field conditions at UNI, the teams agreed to move the three-game series to Omaha.

As a result, Creighton (16-9, 2-1 MVC) will …

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Home sweet home.

Seventeen days after its scheduled home opener, the UNO softball team finally gets to take the field at Westside Field at Westbrook on Friday.

The Mavericks (22-4) are scheduled to host South Dakota State (9-15, 1-2) in a doubleheader at 3 p.m. Friday in their first Summit League series. It wraps up with a noon game on Saturday.

The series was originally supposed to be played in Brookings but was moved because of poor field conditions.

On Thursday, UNO practiced outdoors on its home field for the first time since last fall. The Mavericks have been practicing indoors since January.

“Nice temperature, nice day,” UNO coach Jeanne Scarpello said. “We’re excited to play at home and let our fans watch us right …

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Creighton opens Missouri Valley play this weekend in Evansville.

The teams play a doubleheader at noon Saturday followed by a game Sunday at noon.

The Bluejays (14-8) returned home Thursday from Florida, where senior Amy Baker tied CU’s career home run mark of 50 with a solo shot in a 3-1 loss to Robert Morris at the Rebel Spring Games.

Baker is two home runs shy of the all-time Missouri Valley Conference record of 52 set by Illinois State’s Abby Olson in 2011.

She now holds the Creighton record for career RBIs with 147. She’s third on the MVC career list, 10 shy of the record of 157.…

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The Nebraska softball team faces another challenging weekend.

The No. 25 Huskers play doubleheaders with No. 1 Oklahoma on Saturday starting at 1:30 p.m. and Oklahoma State at noon on Sunday. Those four matchups begin a stretch of eight straight road games for NU.

The Huskers, who started 9-1, dropped to 11-4 last weekend, but all four losses have been to Top 20 opponents. One defeat last weekend was a 2-0 loss to the Sooners, who are off to a 15-0 start. The Cowgirls are 7-7.

The Husker pitching staff, with a 1.44 ERA, has done well against ranked opponents.

Tatum Edwards allowed two earned runs in complete games against No. 19 Arizona and No. 1 Oklahoma, taking a no-hitter into the seventh against the …

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The Creighton softball team heads to Dallas on Friday for a tournament.

The Bluejays (5-4) open against host Texas-Arlington at 3 p.m. Friday followed by a 7 p.m. game with Lamar.

On Saturday, Creighton faces No. 21 Tulsa at 11 a.m. to complete the tournament’s round-robin portion. The four teams will then be seeded to set up semifinal contests at 3 or 5 p.m. The Jays conclude the tourney Sunday with either a 10 a.m. or noon matchup.

The Bluejays went 3-1 at the Central Arkansas Tournament last weekend, outscoring their opponents 35-16.

Senior Amy Baker was a big part of that offensive output, hitting .727 (8 for 11). With three home runs, she’s bumped her career total to 46, four shy of tying Creighton’s …

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