The Lincoln University women's softball team opened their 2017 season with a pair of losses to Wesley College Saturday in Dover, Delaware.

Lincoln dropped the first game 19-3 and then lost the second 19-2.  Both games were called after five innings of play via collegiate softball's eight-run mercy rule.

In the opening game, the Lions scored all three of their runs in the third inning.  Jasmin Harrison (Bridgeport, Conn./Bassick HS) led off the inning with a single and advanced on an infield error.  Mariah Russell (St Louis Mo./Maplewood Richmond Heights) then delivered a one-out single to score Harrison.  Two batters later Diana Martinez (Kissimmee, Fla./St. Cloud) drove in the other two runs with a double to center field, making the score 13-3 at the time. 

Wesley added four runs in the bottom of the third and two more in the fourth to round out their scoring.

Martinez went 2-3 with the double and two RBI while Russell was 2-2 with a walk and an RBI.  Harrison and Tierra Russaw (Westland, Mich./Summit Academy) also had hits.

In game two, Wesley scored 15 runs in the first three innings before Lincoln got on the board with a solo run in the fourth.  Harrison was hit by a pitch to start the inning and advanced to third on Alexis Harrod's (Kiribati, South Korea/Seoul American HS) single.  Russaw's infield groundout then brought Harrison home with the first Lincoln run.

In the fifth inning, Breanna Pigford (Mickleton, N.J./Kingsway Regional) singled and later scored on Chauntel Seymour's (Teaneck, N.J./Teaneck HS) long single.

Harrod took the loss in both games.

The women's softball team returns to action on March 3, 2017 when they face Wayne State University in the first game of the Shaw University Softball Challenge Tournament in Cary, North Carolina.