STEUBENVILLE, Ohio—Franciscan softball honored their only senior, team captain Hailey Wesselman, and played neck and neck with Hilbert College but fell prey to defensive errors in the final innings of both games, losing 3-1 and 16-6.

Both games proved to be a case of the Lady Barons struggling to finish strong with Hilbert's pivotal moments occurring in the final three innings.

Down 1-0 in the bottom of the fourth of the first game, sophomore pitcher Jordan Cunningham hit her second home run of the season over the left field fence, which tied the game.

A few innings later, leaving runners stranded on base in the bottom of the sixth, the Lady Barons were unable to capitalize on scoring opportunities, and two runs from Hilbert in the top of the seventh sealed the deal.

The second game had a promising start for the Lady Barons, scoring six runs early to give Franciscan a 6-1 lead. The defense began to falter in the fifth inning, however, allowing seven runs in the inning, bringing the score to 8-6, from which the green and gold could not recover.

"We had two innings where we just couldn't catch the ball. We had three or four errors in each inning," head coach James Walker said. "I think they only had one or two actual earned runs in the entire game. Any time you give a team that many extra outs, it's going to come back and hurt you."

The sixth inning put the nail in the coffin for FUS as Hilbert continued to put runs on the board to finish the game.

"We played hard the whole time, but in the end, we just couldn't make up for the amount of extra outs we gave them," Walker said, adding that defensive mistakes have been a trend throughout the season.

Despite frustration in the field, several players continued to keep the Lady Baron batting lineup interesting. Wesselman had two singles in the first game and three doubles in the second, freshman Cecelia Lademan had two singles in each, and sophomore Iliana Gonzales hit one single in the first game and three in the second.

The issue offensively, however, continued to be consistency. Nevertheless, Walker said he was pleased with the effort of players like Cunningham and Lademan.

"Jordan did really well today," Walker said. "In the first game she did really well, and in the second game she pitched as hard as she could. She just ran out of gas I think, but she's also been hitting the ball pretty well."

Walker added that a continual bright spot in the team's difficult season has been the senior captain, Wesselman.

"Being a first year coach, I really didn't know what to expect, and when I got here Hailey stepped right up made the transition really smooth," Walker said. "She really helped keep the team together this year. We had small numbers, so losing anybody would have been a problem, but Hailey was right there to keep picking everybody up and was just a great team captain for us."

The Lady Barons are hoping for a win to finish off the season with their last game against Oberlin College on April 26 at 12 and 2pm.

"We just need to catch the ball," Walker said. "If we play good defensively, we have a chance to win.