Roos' Season Comes to a Close Against #2 Omaha

Friday, May 10

Brookings, SD

3:30 PM

Kansas City

23-31

Omaha

39-13

Kansas City

OMAHA

Photo by: Dave Eggen, Inertia

Roos' Season Comes to a Close Against #2 Omaha

5/10/2024 5:48:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

Kansas City was unable to bring any runs across in the Semifinal game

BROOKINGS, S.D. - Kansas City Softball's (23-31, 8-10 Summit) season came to a close this afternoon at the hands of #2 Omaha (39-13, 14-4 Summit), 2-0. Camryn Stickel threw a gem once again, allowing just two earned runs, but the Roos' bats were unable to back her up with run support.

Putting the bat on the ball was not the issue for KC, as the Roos out-hit Omaha, 9-6, and struck out just three times. The problem came with runners on base, as Kansas City was held to just 3-of-16 hitting with runners on base, including 0-of-9 hitting with runners in scoring position.

Two runs scored in the bottom of the first inning wound up making the difference, as a hard hit ball by the Mavericks' Sydney Ross proved too tough to make a play on, accounting for all of the game's scoring output.

KEY MOMENTS

Top 1 / 0-0 | Abby Husak and Kadin Vire went for back-to-back singles to start the game and Sydney Nichols drew a two-out walk to load the bases, but Kansas City could not take advantage to get onto the scoreboard. Omaha scored a pair in the bottom of the inning to go in front.
Top 4 / 0-2 | For the third time in four innings, Kansas City put two runners on base. This time singles from Derika Castillo and Katie Noble put runners on the corners, but the Roos left them stranded.
Bottom 5 / 0-2 | Camryn Stickel went three-up, three down in the bottom of the fifth, starting the inning with a strikeout and closing things with a fly out and a ground out.
Top 7 / 0-2 | The Roos needed a rally in the seventh, and Kadin Vire looked to get things going with a one-out single. However, the next two batters were retired and Omaha advanced to the championship

STATS TO NOTE

Kansas City was led at the plate by Husak, Vire and Castillo, each of whom came up with a pair of singles. Briona Woods was the lone Roo to go for extra bases with a fifth inning double.
Stickel finishes the season with a 12-17 record from the circle, tossing a league-leading 213.1 innings, ranking top-five in the nation. In addition, her ERA of 2.4 ranked third in the Summit.
This marked the first time that the Roos notched multiple postseason wins since the 2021 season, and just the sixth time in program history.

SEASON IN REVIEW
In the second year of the Kiki Stokes O'Connor era, Kansas City improved upon last year's record by 14 wins, and doubled its amount of Summit League wins from 2023. The Roos finished fourth in Summit League play and earned their best postseason seed since 2016. Eight Kansas City players were honored with postseason awards, led by Freshman of the Year Kadin Vire, along with Summit League First Teamers Camryn Stickel and Lexy Smith.