The Lady Bears opened CIAA Softball Tournament play with a heartbreaking 5-4 loss to Virginia State when a Shaw error allowed the winning Lady Trojan run to score in the bottom of the seventh.  Shaw rebounded later in the day, riding Shakia Pleder's (pictured) four-hit pitching performance for a 9-1 win to keep them alive in the double-elimination tournament.

In the first game, the Lady Bears took a lead in the top of the fourth, on Emily Montgomery's solo home run and Chelsea Holliday's base running, which turned a Lady Trojan left fielder error into an inside the park home run to give the Bears a 3-2 lead. 

The Lady Trojans tied the game in the bottom of the fourth, then went ahead with a single run in the fifth.  In the top of the sixth, Montgomery singled to left field and Monica Grimmage drove her home on a triple, tying the score at four.

In the bottom of the seventh, VSU took advantage of three Lady Bear errors to score the winning run.

Shaw collected six hits in the first game, with Montgomery the only Lady Bear with two hits.  Pledger took the loss in game one, having given up 12 hits in seven innings and four earned runs.

Pledger coupled with a hot offense led the Lady Bears to a win in their second game of the day, taking down the Lady Vikings 9-1 in the loser's bracket game.  The game ended after five innings on the mercy rule.

Pledger gave up no earned runs and only four hits while striking out six. Offensively, the Lady Bears were efficient, scoring nine runs on nine hits and four ECSU errors.  Only three of Shaw's runs were earned.

Shaw broke on top early, scoring three runs in the bottom of the second.  Chelsea Holliday stroked a triple that drove in both Grimmage and Montgomery.  Holliday then scored when Pledger drove a single through the middle of the infield.

In the bottom of the fifth, up 3-1, the Lady Bears collected four hits, took advantage of four Lady Viking errors and scored six runs to end the game on the mercy rule. 

Nikita Burroughs and Hollliday each had two hits in the game, with Holliday collecting two RBI.  Montgomery and Grimmage each scored a pair for the Lady Bears.

CIAA Tournament play continues on Saturday.