Syracuse was unable to overcome several game-changing errors as it dropped four of five games at the Diamond 9 Citrus Classic this weekend.

The Orange (5-10) opened up tournament play with a 2-0 victory over Nebraska-Omaha (12-7) on Friday afternoon. Freshman Sydney O’Hara earned the victory on the mound, going the distance while striking out 10 and walking only two.

Sophomores Riley Johnson and Cory Ozanne each recorded RBI singles to account for the Orange’s runs in the shutout.

In the nightcap of the doubleheader, Syracuse battled back from a 4-0 deficit against No. 17 Missouri (12-3) to take the lead, but eventually lost 9-7 in eight innings.

Senior Jasmine Watson’s three-run home run in the third cut the Missouri lead to 4-3. After senior Shirley Daniels and junior Julie Wambold both hit RBI singles in the fourth, the Orange took a 5-4 lead.

Missouri tied the game in the sixth and after a scoreless seventh, extra innings were needed to determine the winner.

After an error by sophomore Dani Chitkowski loaded the bases in the top of the eighth for Missouri, Angela Randazzo capitalized by tripling down the right field line to clear the bases and give the Tigers a 9-6 lead.

Syracuse was able to get a run in the bottom half after freshman Alyssa Dewes singled in Chitkowski, but Ozanne struck out looking with the bases loaded to end the game.

Following a hard-fought game on Friday night, the Orange was blown out by Auburn (17-3-1) on Saturday afternoon by a score of 10-1.

The only bright spot for Syracuse came in the fourth inning when Chitkowski hit her first home run of the year, a solo shot that cut the Auburn lead to 2-1.

But from there on out, Auburn poured it on. The Tigers scored three in the fifth, three in the sixth and two in the seventh to pull away and take the victory.

In the Saturday nightcap, the Orange scored two runs against Bradley (7-12) in the top of the seventh to tie the game at five, but lost 6-5 on a walk-off wild pitch by sophomore Lindsey Larkin in the bottom half.

And in the final game of the tournament, Syracuse dropped another one-run contest, this time to Fordham (7-12).

The Orange jumped out to an early lead after Ozanne hit her first home run of the year to give Syracuse a 1-0 lead.

It was sloppy play again, though, that doomed the Orange, as freshman Christina Clermont’s wild pitch in the third gave Fordham a 2-1 lead that would go on to be the final score.

Syracuse opens up conference play this upcoming weekend with three games against North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C.

compiled by Matt Schneidman, staff writer, mschnei@syr.edu

Published on March 2, 2014 at 11:21 pm