STEUBENVILLE, Ohio—Franciscan University fell this afternoon to a solid Mt. Aloysius side, 10-1 and 19-1. The Lady Barons showed signs of improvement on the defensive end, but continue to have problems in the batters box.

Defensive improvements came in large part because of the return of junior short stop, Michele Volk, who made a couple solid plays to tag runners out at first after missing a good chunk of the season.

"Michele is a fantastic short stop," head coach Jen Parker said. "To see her field today, you would have never known she hasn't played in the past few weeks."

Jen Parker said that her team is working on the offense, but she is still waiting for the results to show.

"We are not taking those opportunities that are being given offensively," Parker said. "If we could put something together offensively, that first game would have been a lot closer for us."

Opportunities for the Lady Barons were tough to come by. The powerful pitching for the Mountaineers proved to be a lot of trouble for the home side, receiving seven strikeouts in the first game.

"Again we're having problems in the batters box," Parker said. "We're not taking those nice pitches that we can line drive."

One player that did take advantage of hittable pitches was second baseman, Katrina Fabian, who stayed aggressive on her swings, battling in the bottom of the second to force a walk.

In the bottom of the fourth, with a double from senior third baseman, Mallori Linscomb, and a single from catcher Kim Muscat, Katrina found herself with runners on first and second. Katrina singled, batting in Linscomb for the lone run of the game.

"We had some solid hits, just not enough of them," Parker said, acknowledging the need for more players to step up in the batter's box.

Parker said that she shifted up the lineup and is moving players around, but she said that she is looking for her team to swing all the way through.

Problems for the Lady Barons carried over into game two. With starting pitcher Ashley Ruttencutter resting after five innings in game one, Eloise Rover took the mound, while Serra Alongi came in to finish off the game for Franciscan. Parker said that both her pitchers started off with strong performances but said she hopes to have them improve on their pitch placement.

"She wasn't opening up on her pitchers," Parker said of Rover. "And she even said that, so she knows where the problem is."

Parker realizes the problems for her team, but said that she remains confident going into each matchup.

"I believe they can win every single game we play," Parker said. "We just need to realize that and play that way. If we can turn the bats on, we're going to score more runs and that's really the bottom line at this point."

The Lady Barons will hit the practice fields and work on their batting, before getting back on the road to face a struggling D'Youville (3-11) side, with games at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on April 12.