BOX SCORE 1 | BOX SCORE 2 TUSCON, Ariz. – The University of New Haven softball team opened its season with a pair of games at the NFCA Division II Leadoff Classic on Friday from the Lincoln Park Softball Complex. The Chargers were upended 11-6 by Western Oregon in the opener before falling to St. Mary's (TX) in an afternoon contest.

With their wins, St. Mary's is now 2-0 and Western Oregon is 1-1. New Haven falls to 0-2.

The first inning against Western Oregon started with a bang as the Wolves jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of the frame before the Chargers responded in the bottom of the inning. With two outs, Marissa Colby (Carlton, Mass./Shepherd Hill) singled for her first collegiate hit. Victoria Cabral (New Britain, Conn./Miss Porter's School / Hofstra) followed with a single before Kristine Liptack (Trumbull, Conn./Trumbull) tripled to right field, plating both runners and tying the game at 2-2.

Unfortunately, the two subsequent innings did not go New Haven's way as Western Oregon scored eight runs in the second and third to take a 10-2 lead. Undaunted, the Chargers rallied in the fourth, starting with a leadoff walk by Gabby DeLeo (Philadelphia, Pa./St. Hubert Catholic) and a single by Courtney Reed (Lower Burrell, Pa./Burrell). Tori Schiebe (Monroe, Conn./Masuk) stood in next and delivered her first collegiate hit, a single to drive in DeLeo and move Reed to second. After a sac bunt moved the runners to second and third, Julie Devlin (Baldwin, N.Y./Northwood School) hit a sharp ground ball to third that Destiny Kuehl fielded, but threw late to home, allowing Reed to score and advancing Scheibe to third. The Blue and Gold capped its scoring for the inning when Schiebe came home on a passed ball to slice the WOU lead to 10-6.

That game remained that way until the seventh when the Wolves added an insurance run to cement the final score

In the second game New Haven played during the day, The St. Mary's Rattlers scored single runs in the first, third and fifth innings and got a splendid pitching performance by Hope Russell in picking up the 3-0 win. The Chargers got a strong performance on the mound from Nicole King (Front Royal, Va./Warren County) who went the distance, allowing five hits and striking out eight.

New Haven continues play in the Classic tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time when it takes on No. 23 Cal Baptist. The Chargers then enter bracket play in the afternoon with a time and opponent to be determined based on the results of Saturday morning's action.