MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The Rogers State softball team dropped a pair of games on opening day at the Southern Arkansas Festival Friday letting an early lead slip in game one to Texas Woman's, 5-3, before a 10-2 loss to Cameron.
 
GAME ONE – TEXAS WOMAN'S
RSU took an early 3-0 lead in the opener, but could not hold off the Pioneers' late-inning rally falling 5-3 to begin the 2016 season. Jamie Kowalick drew a walk to start the bottom of the first and crossed home plate for the first run of the season on an RBI single into shallow center field off the bat of Katlin Alexander.
 
Another lead-off walk in the third came around to score for the Cats as Katelyn Gamble reached base before stealing second in her RSU debut, for one her two swipes in the game. Ashleigh Stidman gave the Hillcats the second base runner of the inning walking with one out. Morgen Blanchard promptly ripped a two-run double off the base of the fence in left center putting RSU in front, 3-0.
 
TWU got its first hit of the game off Hillcats' starter Rachel Jones in the top of the fourth and cut into the lead with two runs in the fifth. After three singles loaded the bases, Logan Polasek drove in a pair making it a 3-2 contest. The Pioneers evened the score, 3-3, in the sixth before taking their only lead in the seventh for the 5-3 victory.
 
Mayra Helguera suffered the loss for RSU allowing one run in 1.2 innings of relief work, while Katie Hickey earned the win relieving the starter for 4.2 innings.
 
GAME TWO - CAMERON
The Hillcats went down in order in the top of the first and the Aggies quickly tallied two runs on three hits to get the scoring started. Cameron added two more runs in the second after stranding two RSU baserunners in the second.
 
Taking advantage of two Cameron errors in the third, the Cats were able to cut the margin in half posting two runs as Blanchard loaded the bases with a single moving Gamble and Stidman into scoring position. Alexander followed with a sacrifice fly and RSU added its second run on the second error of the frame making it a 4-2 game.
 
The Aggies got the two runs back in the fourth and added four in the fifth for the short-game decision, 10-2, tacking on four unearned runs in the late stages.
 
Six different players recorded one hit in game two for RSU. The Hillcats (0-2 overall) continue the weekend festival Saturday at noon facing Delta State before a 4 p.m. matchup against the host Muleriders of Southern Arkansas.