BOX SCORE

KISSIMMEE, Fla. - Dowling (N.Y.) erased a 5-0 deficit to defeat Southwest Minnesota State 9-5 Saturday morning at the Rebel Spring Games in Kissimmee, Fla.

Chelsey Evans took her first loss of the season in the circle for SMSU (6-6); she entered the contest in the fourth inning with the game tied 5-5 and gave up three hits and four runs in 3.1 innings of work. Cortney Heim started the game and pitched 3.2 innings, allowing five hits.

Felicia Mendoza worked a complete game for DC (2-0), allowing five runs on five hits and striking out eight Mustang batters.

Britney Hallahan finished 2 for 3 with an RBI to pace the Mustangs. Andrea Fennern was 1 for 1 with two RBIs.

SMSU jumped out to a 5-0 lead early, retiring DC in order in the top of the first and pouring in five runs in the bottom half of the inning. After Meaghan Laetsch and Kristin Braden got on base via a walk and hit by pitch to start the inning, Christine Borowiak slapped a one-out, infield single to jam the bases.

Krista Steen was then hit by a pitch and Amanda Neumann was walked to drive in a pair of runs. Hallahan drove in SMSU's third run of the inning when she singled to left center. One out later, Fennern dropped in single to left field to score Hallahan and Neumann and push the Mustang lead to 5-0.

The productive inning, however, would be the lone runs the Mustangs would put on the board.

After giving up one run in the second, the Mustangs let the Golden Lions scrape their way to a 5-5 game in the fourth. DC need just two hits to score four runs in the inning—helped greatly by a pair of Mustang errors.

Evans entered the game late in the fourth to retire the final DC batter.

The Golden Lions took a decisive lead in the top of the fifth inning when Deana Tororici nailed a two-out single to left field to score the go-ahead run.

But it was a three-run homer from Stephanie Tarango in the sixth inning that proved too much for SMSU. The bomb put DC up 9-5 and left SMSU with two frames to close the four-run deficit.

The Mustangs looked poised to cut into the difference, loading the bases in the bottom of the sixth with one out. A pair of strikeouts for outs two and three, however, ended the inning.

The Mustangs grounded out in order in the bottom of the seventh.




The Mustangs will play New York Institute of Technology at 3 p.m. EST today.