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MT. PLEASANT, S.C. – The UMass Lowell softball team opened the Holy City Showdown, a five-game tournament hosted by the College of Charleston, with a pair of setbacks on Friday.
 
The River Hawks were first handed a 7-2 loss by Robert Morris in game one. The squad then put together a seventh-inning rally in game two to battle back from what was a five-run deficit, but came up just short in an 8-6 decision against Northern Kentucky.
 
"This was not the start we wanted in terms of results, but I thought that we came back better in the second game," said Head Coach Danielle Henderson. "We almost batted through the entire lineup in the seventh inning of the last game, so I think that's the type of stuff we need to run with. We were a little flat in the first game, but we bounced back and had better at-bats this afternoon."
 
Freshman Marianne Sparacia (Spring Hill, N.J.) led the River Hawks at the plate, batting .833 with five hits, one run and one RBI through the first two games of the weekend. Junior Madison Alcorn (Lowell, Mass.) followed closely, going 4-for-5 (.800) with a 1.000 slugging percentage. Senior pitcher Lauren Ramirez (Dracut, Mass.), who registered four strikeouts in game one, and sophomore Sydney Wash (Suffolk, Va.) each took a decision in the circle.
 
Although the River Hawks logged one hit in each of their first two at-bats in game one from senior Tori Alcorn (Lowell, Mass.) and sophomore Sydney Barker (Upland, Calif.), respectively, it was Robert Morris who pulled away early, scoring four runs in the bottom of the first on four hits.
 
UMass Lowell cut the lead in half in the third, loading the bases before Barker and junior Vanessa Cooper (Pleasant Gap, Pa.) each worked the count to draw a RBI walk and make the score 4-2. Both sides traded one hit apiece in the fifth, with Sparacia sending an outside pitch to the grass in left center for UMass Lowell, but the Colonials would hold onto their two-run advantage.  
 
RMU then used a three-run home run from Olivia Lorusso in the home half of the sixth to create a 7-2 margin. The River Hawks threatened in their final trip to the dish, as a two-bagger from freshman Courtney Cashman (Danvers, Mass.) and a liner from Sparacia put runners on the corners, but the Colonials would extinguish the opportunity to secure the win.
 
In the second game of the day against Northern Kentucky, the River Hawks faced an early deficit once again, as the Norse took a three-run lead in the top of the first on a long ball to left center by Zahrya McFarland. NKU added another homer in the third, this time a two-run shot to center by Dani Devlin, to extend the lead to 5-0.
 
UMass Lowell would get on the board in the fourth when Sparacia and redshirt-freshman Casey Harding (Cheshire, Conn.) logged back-to-back hits to put runners on second and third for Cooper, who drove a sacrifice fly to deep center.
 
Although the Norse plated two more in the fifth, the River Hawks responded with two of their own in their next trip to the dish thanks to a hard hit ball by Sparacia that allowed junior Colleen Frank (Berkeley Heights, N.J.) and T. Alcorn to score.
 
Despite facing an 8-3 deficit heading into the bottom of the seventh, the River Hawks battled back to within striking distance with a seventh-inning rally. The Alcorn sisters roped consecutive doubles to spark a rally that closed the gap to just two and brought the winning run to the plate, but NKU was able to hang on to seal an 8-6 outcome.