COLUMBIA, S.C. – Mariah Russell (St. Louis, MO/Maplewood Richmond Heights HS) hit a home run in the fifth inning leading the Lady Lions in a double header loss at Benedict College on Friday, February 27^th at Kings Park.
 
The Lady Lions opened the first inning scoring two runs taking an early lead. Emily Woodruff (San Diego, CA/Madison HS) drew a walk to lead the inning off followed by an error on the Tiger defense getting Danielle Owes (Edgewater Park, NJ/Burlington County Institute) on base and advancing Woodruff to second base. Mariah Russell (St. Louis, MO/Maplewood Richmond Heights HS) also walked to load the bases full of Lady Lions. Toni Smith (New Castle, DE/William Penn HS) was hit by a pitch advancing all runners and sending home Woodruff. Lincoln's next batter was Tara O'Brien (Twickenham, UK /St. Mark's Catholic School) who hit an RBI by way of a fielder's choice scoring Owes for a 2-0 lead.
 
Benedict responded with 12 runs in the bottom of the first inning, five in the second inning, and six runs in the third inning. Lincoln's Mariah Russell (St. Louis, MO/Maplewood Richmond Heights HS) singled in the fifth inning, but no runs were scored and the Lady Lions suffered a 23-2 loss.
 
In the second game of the double header Lincoln had a season-best eight hits against Benedict. Mariah Russell (St. Louis, MO/Maplewood Richmond Heights HS) hit her first home run of her softball career in the fifth inning. Emily Woodruff (San Diego, CA/Madison HS) recorded a triple and scored two runs while Danielle Owes (Edgewater Park, NJ/Burlington County Institute) scored the other Lady Lions run. Tara O'Brien (Twickenham, UK /St. Mark's Catholic School) added a pair of hits. The Tigers had 11 hits that went for 14 runs.
 
Benedict won the second game 14-4 sweeping the Lady Lions.
 
Lincoln falls to 0-4 while Benedict improved to 5-8.