WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – The Ursinus softball team suffered a pair of losses on Saturday morning in their first two games of their Florida Spring Break trip.
 

The Bears dropped their first contest 7-5 to Dominican (Ill.) before losing 22-10 in a marathon contest to Benedictine.
 
Dominican (Ill.) 7, Ursinus 5
 
Sophomore catcher Kayla Carr got the Bears on the board in the top of the first with a two-out two-run double to left field that scored juniors Samantha Mallen and Stephanie Wichman on second and third base. The Stars responded with a run in the bottom of the first off a two-out rally following a single, stolen base, and a second single that just snuck through the left side. Mallen led off the top of the third with a double to right field and came around to score three batters later an errant throw to first base to make it 3-1. However, the Stars took advantage of a pair of Ursinus errors to score five runs in the bottom of the third and went up 6-3. The Bears got two runs back in the top of the fourth which started after a pair of singles to lead off the inning from junior Rachel Hartman and senior Madison Wilson. Hartman came around to score from first on Wilson's single thanks to a fielding error from the Stars centerfielder while Wilson ended up at third. Mallen snuck a single through the left side to score Wilson one batter later to make it 6-5. The Stars added an insurance run off a groundout in the bottom of the sixth and the Bears stranded runners on first and third to end the game.
 
 
Benedictine 22, Ursinus 10
The Bears got the initial lead in the 1st inning again as Mallen led the game off with a bloop single and stole a pair of bases. Wichman brought her home with a sacrifice fly two batters later. The Eagles responded in the top of the second with a two-run single before the Bears put together a five-run bottom of the second to go up 6-2. Sophomore Jessica Pizzo and Mallen led off the inning with singles and senior Maddie Solow that ended up scoring both runners following a fielding error at the end of the play. Wichman ripped a liner to center that bounced off the Eagles centerfielder's glove to score Solow and senior Sara Sullivan followed with a single that scored Wichman. Carr capped the inning with a double to right that brought Sullivan home. Benedictine put together a two-out rally in the top of the third to make it a 6-5 game following a two-run triple and fielding error at the third base. Ursinus got a run back with a Mallen RBI single in the bottom of the third, but the Eagles scored six runs off three hits to go up 11-7. Benedictine took advantage of three walks, two hit by pitches, and three hits while sending 12 batters to the plate.  The Bears rallied to get within one run of the Eagles at 11-10 entering the top of the seventh, but a decisive 11-run top of the seventh put the game away
 
 
Mallen had a huge day at the plate despite the results as she went a combined 8-of-9 from the plate with four stolen bases, four runs scored, and two RBI. Carr went a combined 4-of-8 from the plate and three RBI's Sullivan went 3-of-3 from the plate with a pair of RBI's and two runs scored in game two.
 
 
The Bears return to action on tomorrow, Sunday March 3rd as they will play another pair starting with Illinois College at 10:15 a.m. before taking on Defiance at 3:00 p.m.