IRVINE, Calif. – Northwest Nazarene softball experienced some offensive struggles on day one of the Concordia Kickoff Classic on Friday, dropping a pair of games to Dominican 5-1 and Chico State 7-0.
The Nighthawks move to 0-3 with two games left on Saturday at the season-opening tournament.
Game 1 vs Dominican
For the second game in a row, NNU got on the scoreboard first in the first inning as
Abigail Gagnon brought home
Maia McNicoll with a two-out RBI single.
NNU had three hits in that first inning, but the Nighthawks would manage just two hits the rest of the way as Dominican scored two in the fourth and three in the sixth to take the 5-1 win.
Tori Hensley started for NNU and went 4.1 innings, allowing two runs on five hits with four strikeouts.
Charlotte Forniss pitched one inning, allowing three runs, and
Gina Skinner tossed a scoreless final five outs.
Hensley also led the Nighthawks from the plate, recording two of NNU's five hits.
Game 2 vs Chico State
The Nighthawks managed just two hits and three walks off of Chico State's Amelie Valdez in the nightcap.
Sidney Booth recorded the first hit with two outs in the top of the first, with
Kaylee Duncan adding a single in the top of the seventh.
Booth started in the circle for NNU, going 5.2 innings and allowing seven runs (just two earned) on seven hits with four strikeouts. Four Nighthawks errors proved to be costly, leading to five unearned runs for the Wildcats.
The game was close at 1-0 until the fifth inning, when Chico scored twice (one from an error) to go up 3-0. The Wildcats then pushed across four in the sixth after a two-out error by NNU to build the lead to the eventual final score of 7-0.
Next Up
NNU will have two more games on Saturday to close out the Concordia Kickoff Classic, facing off with San Francisco State and Cal State San Bernardino.
