Fort Meyers, FL -- North Central University (NCU) Softball played another pair of games this morning as the Rams took on the Clark University (CU) Cougars and the Penn State Altoona (PSA) Nittany Lions. In their first meeting yesterday, NCU picked up its first win of the year by a score of 11-9. Today was a different story as the Rams' bats were silenced by the Cougars defense, as Clark totaled 7 hits and 8 runs to win 8-0 in just 5 innings. In game 2, North Central performed better from the plate, but continued to struggle on defense. Altoona defeated the Rams by a final of 14-4. 

Game 1: NCU 0, CU 8

Clark University opened the scoring in the bottom of the first thanks to three singles to take an early 3-0 lead. They extended the lead in the second as they scored three more runs to double their total to 6-0. North Central struggled to make plays on defense, as their 6 total errors wound up being costly. The Cougars kept their foot on the gas and scored just enough runs to end the game in 5 innings. The Rams lost 8-0 to the Cougars. 

Game 2: NCU 4, PSA 14

North Central started things off better than game one, as Isabela Gallardo reached on hit-by-pitch and Katelynn Fox singled to score Gallardo for the first run of the game. Delaney Riddle and Maggie Kohl repeated that sequence and then Carla Mendoza sacrifice flied to knock in Fox. The teams posted zeros in the second inning before the Lions evened the score in the top of the third. Then in the top of the fourth, Penn St. hit a double to center to score two runs to go ahead. PSU poured it on in the fifth, as they totaled 6 runs off 6 hits and 2 NCU fielding errors. The Rams answered with an RBI single from Kohl to score Fox's pinch runner, Ramiyah Words. Maci Tripp then grounded out to advance Riddle's PR in Abigail Herbolsheimer. Both squads went scoreless in the 6th inning before the Lions put this one away in the top of seven by scoring 4 more runs. NCU could not answer and Penn State Altoona took this one 14-4.
 

Top Performers:

• Katelynn Fox (Jr., CF) - went 3-4 (HP 1B 1B) with 1 RBI and 1 run versus Penn St. Altoona
• Maggie Kohl (Jr., 1B) went 2-4 (3B 1B) with 1 RBI versus Penn St. Altoona
• Carla Mendoza (Sr., P) - totaled 5 strikeouts on the day

Looking Ahead:

Softball will have on day off before they resume play on Sunday with a pair of games against the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford and Alfred State College. 

All fans are encouraged to tune into the official Rams Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter pages for updates on softball and all things NCU Athletics.