There were fireworks scheduled for after Omaha’s series opener with Oral Roberts at Tal Anderson Field.
The Maverick offense provided some of its own before the sun even went down.
Mike Boeve and Noah Greise hit solo home runs, and Eduardo Rosario added a three-run double, as Omaha (23-24) took the opening game of its Summit League series with the Golden Eagles 7-2 Friday.
Rosario’s opposite-field double down the right-field line was the decisive blow of the game. But it was an RBI single from Jack Lombardi two at-bats earlier that opened the door for the four-run outburst.
“That hit was much needed for our team,” Lombardi said. “They are a really good team. We need every chance we can get. And when we don’t capitalize on those, that’s when we fall short sometimes.”
The one-out fourth-inning hit cam with two runners on in a 2-2 game. Boeve opened the scoring for the Mavericks with a blast in the bottom of the first that extended his hitting streak to 23 games.
The Golden Eagles (31-16) responded with a two-run shot from Jackson Loftin in the third. But those were the only runs they’d get off Omaha’s Caleb Riedel (3-2), who struck out nine over his seven innings.
Noah Greise pulled the Mavericks even with an RBI groundout in the bottom of the third. His leadoff homer in the seventh capped the scoring, but Omaha was in the driver’s seat after the Rosario double.
The Omaha catcher had homered off a slider from ORU reliever Andrew Roach in Tulsa, Okla., in early April.
“This time, I was looking for the same pitch,” Rosario said. “I was just sitting all the way on the slider. I was trusting my hands and my ability to hit the slider the other way, and that’s what I did.”
His two-out pop fly landed in fair territory, barely. With the Mavericks running on contact, Boeve was able to score all the way from first to turn a one-run game into a 6-2 advantage.
The victory was Omaha’s third in four games against the Summit League favorite. It pulled the Mavericks, now 12-7 in the Summit, to within a game of the Golden Eagles with five games remaining.
The teams meet again at 6 p.m. Saturday. Lombardi is one of 10 Omaha players to be honored on Senior Day. The Mavericks are playing their final home series of the year on the same weekend as graduation.
“It’s nostalgic,” Lombardi said. “I’m excited to finish out, hopefully, on a good note. I’m just happy to have been here for four years and experience it all.”
