Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Kenyon College softball team concluded its nine-day run through the Gene Cusic Classic with a split of two games Tuesday. The Ladies dropped game one, 7-3, to Nazareth College, but got a stellar pitching performance from Maddy Stark in the second game of the day, which the Ladies won, 8-0, in five innings against Salem State University.

The results of those two games put Kenyon's overall record at 11-4. They'll get back to campus now and get a break from competition until March 23, when they host Mt. Vernon Nazarene University in a doubleheader.

Stark, who was just named the North Coast Athletic Conference's Pitcher of the Week, backed up the honor with her game-two gem. With Kenyon's offense scoring eight runs, Stark only needed to put in five innings of work in the circle. In that time, she was in complete control. She gave up just one hit, didn't walk a batter, and struck out six. A single in the second inning was the only ball Salem State got out of the infield. Stark is already 7-0 this season with a 1.08 earned run average.

At the plate, Kenyon did most of its damage by ringing up seven runs in the top of the fifth inning. The Ladies sent 11 batters to the dish and belted six hits, including doubles by Stark and Jamie Samuel. Stark's double led off the inning and Samuel's double brought Stark in to score. Lindsey Susolik also had an RBI hit in the inning, which also included a walk and a Salem State (4-2) error.

In game one, errors were the Ladies' downfall. The Kenyon women uncharacteristically booted four balls that led to three unearned runs for Nazareth. Three of those errors came in the third inning and wound up putting Kenyon in a 4-0 hole.

That deficit only increased by the time the teams got to the fifth inning. Nazareth (2-3) used three singles and a wild pitch to move ahead 7-0. Kenyon did fight back in the bottom of the inning, using a Susolik double and a Nazareth error to net two unearned runs. The only other run the Ladies could muster came in the seventh, when Stark delivered a sacrifice fly.

One the day, Stark, Samuel, Meredith Williams, Danielle Elizarraraz, and Liz Pattera all posted three hits. Paterra's three hits gave her a .378 batting average for the season, while Samuel improved her mark to .389. Leading the way, however, is Susolik, a freshman that had four hits Tuesday. That extended her hit streak to 13 games and gives her a team-best .447 batting average.

Another freshman, Liz Ovieda, took the pitching loss for the Ladies. She threw all seven innings against Nazareth and gave up just three earned runs.