CLERMONT, Fla. - The Bluffton University softball team closed out its week at THE Spring Games with a 9-4 loss to Haverford and.

Junior Lily Tate (Mount Gilead/Northmor) crossed the dish following a Sydney Zinkon (Fresno/Ridgewood) base knock in the bottom of the first, knotting the score at 1-1, but a 6-run third put the Fords up 7-1. Tate continued her hot hitting when she plated Kryshel Dales (Defiance/Ayersville) with a single up the middle an inning later.

Pinch-hitting freshman Kayleigh Michael (Eaton/National Trail) got Madison Jones (West Milton/Milton Union) in with her sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch sent pinch runner Bryn Cisco (Lancaster/Fairfield Union) scurrying home, but it wasn't enough as Haverford closed out Bluffton's first game on Friday with a 9-4 win over the Beavers.

Sophomore Katie Fleshman (Delaware/Rutherford B. Hayes) dropped her first decision of the year after surrendering four runs on five hits in two innings of work. Jones allowed just one unearned run in 2.2 innings of relief. Dales finished with two safeties, while Tate and Jones both walked twice.

Game two saw Bluffton's offensive struggles continue as the Beavers dropped a 5-0 decision to Emerson in the Florida finale. The Lions scored three runs in the first and two more in the second and that was a wrap as Bluffton finished game two with just three hits. Dales went 2-of-3 with a two bagger.

Freshman Hayley Lewis (Kettering/Fairmont) saw her first action in the circle, allowing five runs, but just two earned, while taking the loss. She gave up five hits and struck out a batter. Erin Norman (Pleasant Hill/Newton) struck out two in two innings of shutdown relief.

Bluffton will return to action back in the states when they make the short trip to Heidelberg for a doubleheader next Thursday, March 17, at 3:30 p.m.

-BEAVERS-