NORMAN, Okla. – (3) Omaha softball kept its season alive Saturday by knocking off (4) Boston University, 3-1, in an NCAA tournament elimination game in the Norman Regional, which is being played at Love's Field, hosted by (1) Oklahoma.
 
The win gives the Mavericks (40-12) at least one NCAA tournament win in each of the last three seasons and makes Omaha a perfect 9-0 in two-run games this season. With the victory, the Mavericks advanced to another elimination game against (2) Cal (36-20) later Saturday night.
 
The winner of the Omaha-Cal game will move on to face Oklahoma (46-7) in the Norman Regional Final Sunday at 1 p.m. CT. The Omaha-Cal winner would have to beat the Sooners twice to win the regional championship.
 
The game was interrupted for almost two hours by a rain delay in the top of the third inning and scoreless. Neither team was able to push across a run until the bottom of the fourth, when Omaha finally broke through to go up, 2-0.
 
Rylinn Groff led off the inning with a single before the next two batters were retired. With two outs, Ava Rongisch stepped to the plate a smacked a 3-2 pitch over the right field fence for a 216-foot, two-run homer – her seventh of the season – to give the Mavericks the 2-0 lead.
 
It stayed 2-0 until the bottom of the fifth, when Omaha got an insurance run courtesy of Alyson Edwards. With one out in the inning, Edwards stepped in and drove a 1-2 pitch over the center field wall 221 feet away for her second homer of the season to push the Mavericks' lead to 3-0.
 
Meanwhile, the Terriers (39-19) had baserunners in every inning against Omaha starter Maddia Groff (27-6), but the Summit League Pitcher of the Year and the Mavericks' defense got the outs they needed each time to keep the Terriers scoreless in the first six innings.
 
BU did get a run in the top of the seventh, getting a single and RBI double with two outs to trim the Omaha lead to 3-1, but a flyout to Sammy Schmidt in right field gave the Mavericks the third out they needed to close out the win and keep their season alive.
 
Maddia Groff threw her 20th complete game of the season to get the win, allowing one run on eight hits with six strikeouts and one walk.
 
Rylinn Groff was 2-for-3 with a run scored, Katherine Johnson doubled and Marra Cramer added a hit for the Mavericks, who had six total hits in the victory.
 
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