Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - On the first day of the trip to South Carolina, the University of Minnesota Morris softball team came away with a 2-1 loss to Stevenson University and a 4-0 win over Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham in back-to-back contests. The split of the action moves the Cougars to 2-4 overall on the season.

The Cougars will play 13 more games over the course of the week at the Fastpitch Dreams Spring Classic, starting with two tomorrow. First up is a 10 a.m. (11 a.m. EDT) matchup with the University of Maine-Presque Isle, followed by an afternoon contest with Gwynedd Mercy University at 2 p.m. (3 p.m. EDT).

Stevenson 2, Minnesota Morris 1
The Cougars started slow in the first game of the trip, failing to get on base until the top of the third inning when Anna Athey advanced to second base in her first at-bat of the day. The first Cougar batter in the top of the fifth, Olivia Losee, made it on base due to an error from Stevenson and scored on a sacrifice fly from Olivia Diver. In the top of the sixth, Athey and Sierra Stevens ended up in scoring position before the Cougars again went scoreless. The Cougars allowed one run in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game at 1-1. 

The top of the seventh was the Cougars' hope to pull ahead. Coming in on first as a pinch runner, Alice Wilkinson stole second and advanced to third but failed to make it home. The Stevenson offense came out strong in the bottom of the seventh and stole two bases off the Cougars before scoring on an RBI and ending the game at 2-1. 

Minnesota Morris 4, Fairleigh Dickinson-Florham 0
In their second game of the day the Cougar defense was ironclad, not allowing any runs. The defense was led by pitcher Skyla Bristol who struck out nine batters on the day and achieved a perfect second inning in the pitching circle. 

On the offensive side, the Cougars remained scoreless until the third inning when Roena Diver and Stevens scored and stole one base apiece in the process. The Cougars were up 2-0 going into the fourth, where they widened their lead when Athey scored off a sacrifice from Olivia Diver. Wilkinson pushed the Cougar lead to 4-0 when a string of errors from the defense allowed her to cross home in her own at-bat. Bristol took things from there, stranding multiple FDU-Florham runners in the final three innings to notch her second win of the season.