CANTON, Ohio -- The Mercyhurst softball team defeated non-conference opponent Malone, 8-7, before tying game two, 4-4, as the game ended after seven innings due to darkness on Thursday.

Individual recaps are below.

Lakers 8, Malone 7
Emily Hair smashed two home runs, including a go-ahead, two-run bomb in the seventh inning, as the Lakers pulled out a come-from-behind victory. Mercyhurst scored seven two-out runs.

Hair batted 3-for-4 with four RBI and three runs scored. Jolene Teller added a 2-for-2 game with a double, three runs and one RBI while Jamie Ward went 2-for-3 with a double and three RBI.

Sarah Eschleman was the winning pitcher as she provided four innings of scoreless relief. She entered the game with the Lakers trailing 7-5 and scattered four hits while recording five strikeouts, two walks and one hit batsman.

Mercyhurst led twice before Malone answered each time. A two-out, two-run homer by Hair in the Mercyhurst first helped the visitors to a 2-0 lead, but Malone responded in its half of the first with four runs.

In the third, Mercyhurst took the lead again on a two-out, three-run double by Ward, but, once again, the Pioneers came back -- this time scoring three runs on double by Allison Mercado in their half of the third to grab a 7-5 advantage.

Teller had an RBI single in the Mercyhurst fifth, trimming the deficit to one run and setting the stage for Hair's heroics. Teller, herself, reached base with a two-out HBP in the seventh before Hair came through with the go-ahead blast.

Eschleman then finished off the game with a scoreless seventh.

Emily Beck was Malone's leading hitte,r going 3-for-4 with a run and two RBI. Isabella Roberts was the losing pitcher.


Mercyhurst 4, Malone 4 (7 inn.)
The host Pioneers tied the contest with two outs in the seventh, stealing victory from Mercyhurst, before darkness prevented the game from progressing.

Emily Foy batted 2-for-3 with a double and run for a Laker attack that had only four hits.

A Malone error helped the Lakers take a 1-0 lead in the third inning before the Pioneers came back to take a 2-1 lead in their third.

Emma LeGendre then tied the contest at 2-2 with a sacrifice fly, driving in Foy who had reached with her two-bagger.

In the Laker fifth, Teller put the visitors ahead with an RBI single. Later in the frame, heady baserunning by Rachel Bartolomeo helped the Lakers take a 4-2 lead.

Malone came back with one run in the fifth and then one in the seventh on a two-out single by Emily Beck.

Ashley Beck went 3-for-4 for the Pioneers with two homers, one triple and three RBI. Maria Mokler batted 4-for-4.

Anna Cochis started in the pitcher's circle for Mercyhurst, giving up three runs on 10 hits while recording three strikeouts and one walk. She worked five innings before Eschleman pitched the final two frames.

Allyson Gruen (5 IP) and Roberts (2 IP) split pitching duties for Malone.