PITTSBURGH, PA – The Franciscan University of Steubenville Lady Barons softball team continued a stretch of conference play with a doubleheader against La Roche College Wednesday afternoon. Franciscan dropped both contests, 8-0 and 8-2, against the Lady Redhawks.

The Lady Barons now stand 1-11 on the season and 0-6 in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference.

In the first game, the Lady Barons struggled to find any offense. La Roche pitcher Jessica Cullum silenced the Baron bats to only two hits in the game. Katie Quitney broke Cullum's no-hitter in the fourth inning with a single, while Emily Whiteside opened the fifth with a single of her own. The Redhawks lit up Shelbi Linscomb for thirteen hits and eight earned runs.

In the second game, the Lady Barons played a much closer game in the 8-2 loss. Linscomb took the mound again for Franciscan in an impressive display of tenacity. Linscomb gave up two runs to La Roche in the third inning mkaing the score 2-0. The Lady Baron bats came alive, though, in the top of the fifth. Whiteside and Monica Recnzik started off the inning with back-to-back singles. Lady Baron shortstop Lara Plumlee ripped a double to drive in both runs, tying up the score. The Lady Redhawk took the lead again, 3-2, in the bottom of the inning and blew the game wide open in the sixth, scoring five runs off of three doubles and a triple to finalize the score at 8-2.

Coach Jen Biela was overall pleased with the performance of her team:

“We had two great pitching performances again from Shelbi Linscomb. In the first game we couldn't get our offense going and we made some defensive mental errors. But the girls came out fighting in the second game and I'm definitely seeing improvements from our games last week. So we have a lot to look forward to.”

The Lady Barons will take a break from conference play to travel to Penn State Beaver in doubleheader action on Friday, April 9, at 4 p.m.