PETERSBURG, Va. – The Lincoln University softball team continues to make drastic improvements as the season progresses. This time it showed on the scoreboard as the Lions posted its first-ever win over Virginia State Saturday.
 

GAME ONE: LINCOLN 10, VIRGINIA STATE 4

Freshman Tia Brown (Newark, N.Y./Newark) did it with her arm and her bat as Lincoln opened a key Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association doubleheader with a 10-4 victory. Brown had three hits, scored three runs, and limited the Trojans to just four earned runs.
 

She was single-handedly responsible for the game's first run as she opened the second with a single, stole second, and raced home on a throwing error. It was the second inning that boosted the Lions' odds.
 

Freshman Cailyn Dove (Annapolis, Md./Broadneck Senior) kept the scoring going with an RBI single, racing home junior Amaya Townsend (Port Jervis, N.Y./Port Jervis) – who walked and moved to second on a passed ball. Dove scored on a single by freshman Irlynn Richardson (Pittsburgh, Pa./Penn Hills), and two more runs came across the plate on a two-run single by freshman MacKienzee Rasheed (Cincinnati, Ohio/Walnut Hills).
 

After VSU scored its first run of the game in the third inning, Lincoln had a two-out answer in the fifth. Brown started the rally with a single and scored on a triple by Townsend, who scored on a single by freshman Cate Liskey (Richland, Pa./Eastern Lebanon ).
 

Virginia State pulled closer in the bottom of the sixth inning with a three-run home run. Undeterred, the Lions showed their resolve earned through early-season struggles to put three more runs in the top of the seventh inning. Townsend doubled home a pair of runs in freshman Jarae Turner and Brown, and then scored on a Dove single.
 

Townsend finished the day 2-for-3 with a double, triple, three runs scored and three RBI, while Brown was 3-for-4 with a double and three runs scored. Dove and Richardson also finished with a pair of hits.
 

Brown, 4-10, hurled her fifth complete game of the season, allowing four runs on seven hits.
 

GAME TWO: VIRGINIA STATE 13, LINCOLN 0

Richardson recorded Lincoln's only hit of the game, a leadoff single in the first.
 

Virginia State put together a huge inning, a 12-run fourth, to post the victory. The Trojans scored a run in the second and then the big fourth to salvage a split.
 

Liskey, 1-9, allowed eight runs on nine hits in 3 1/3 innings.
 

Lincoln returns to the diamond noon Sunday at Virginia Union.