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WILMINGTON, N.C. – The UMass Lowell softball team (7-11) stayed hot at the plate while finishing day two of the UNCW Invitational, 1-1.
 
The River Hawks led by as many as seven in game one against UNCW (16-6-1) before eventually taking a 10-9 setback in extra innings. The team ended the day on a strong note, though, earning a 9-0 win in five innings against St. Bonaventure (6-15).
 
"We got ahead early in the first game and towards the end we battled," said Head Coach Danielle Henderson. "You can't practice those situations until you're in them, so I think we'll come out of this better. We bounced back great the second game. Our bats were alive all day long, so I think we did a great job at the plate."
 
UMass Lowell plated 18 runs in the two games on Saturday with four home runs. Junior Madison Alcorn (Lowell, Mass.) led the squad on offense with a .750 average (3-4), while adding her first career home run and three RBI. Senior Tori Alcorn (Lowell, Mass.) hit .500 (3-6) with two RBI, and team-best marks of four runs scored and two homers. Junior Vanessa Cooper (Pleasant Gap, Pa.) chipped in with two RBI of her own on two hits (.667). Sophomore Sydney Barker (Upland, Calif.) and freshman Courtney Cashman (Danvers, Mass.) each registered three hits on the day, and junior Colleen Frank (Berkeley Heights, N.J.) tallied her first career hit, as well. Sophomore Kaysee Talcik (Shelton, Conn.), who came on in relief in game one, took both decisions in the circle, including the complete-game shutout against St. Bonaventure.
 
The River Hawks jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first, thanks to a RBI double by Cashman and a three-run blast high over the fence in left off the bat of Barker. In the second, UMass Lowell stretched its margin to 6-0, as T.  Alcorn laid down a sacrifice bunt that turned into a two-run UNCW miscue.
 
The Seahawks were able to get on the board with a solo homer by Nella Chamblee in the home half of the second, but the visitors pulled away, 8-1, in the top of the fourth when sophomore Brianna West (Fairfield, Conn.) led off with an infield single and T. Alcorn followed with her second long ball of the year.
 
UNCW continued to battle, cutting the difference in half in the bottom of the inning. UMass Lowell got one back in the top of the sixth after pinch hitter Emily O'Brien (Salem, N.H.) opened the at-bat with a hard-hit ball to left, but the Seahawks quickly answered with a grand slam by Rachel Willis to make it just a one-run game at 9-8.
 
The Seahawks knotted the score at 9-9 in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings. Both teams left a runner on third in the eighth, contributing the 17 total stranded in the contest, but the difference-maker went in favor of UNCW in the bottom of the ninth, as the Seahawks executed a successful squeeze bunt for the 10-9, walk-off.
 
In game two, the River Hawks took the lead in the first inning once again, this time on RBI liners from Cashman and Cooper to pull ahead, 3-0. T. Alcorn then stepped in with one on in the second and sent a ball out of the park for the second time of the day, giving her squad a five-run advantage.
 
Talcik dominated in the circle, not allowing a baserunner until the bottom of the fourth when Desiree Gonzalez drove a triple to right, although she would be stranded there. UMass Lowell rallied for four more runs in the fifth, securing the five-inning, 9-0 win with a three-run home run from M. Alcorn.
 
The River Hawks will wrap up their 10-day spring break trek with one more game in Wilmington tomorrow against St. Bonaventure beginning at 9 a.m.