On the final day of competition in Clermont, Florida the St. Lawrence softball team dropped a pair of contests to Hood College and the United States Coast Guard Academy to finish with a 5-7 record.

The day got off to a heartbreaking start for the St. Lawrence softball team as they suffered a 2-1 loss to Hood College.

Hood jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning after Carly Farr doubled to get things going for the Blaze. She came around to score on when Katie Jenkins ripped a hard ground ball up the middle and into centerfield.

The Blaze maintained its one-run lead through the fifth inning, as Kyle Plimpton pitched her best game of the season thus far, striking out 13 through seven innings. The junior struck out the side in the second, third and sixth innings to keep Hood off the board and give the Saints to get on the board.

The Scarlet and Brown finally broke through in the top of the sixth inning with a series of singles that brought senior Leslie Stratton – who led off the inning with a single to short – around to score and evened the score at 1-1. Cailyn Welsh picked up the RBI on Stratton's run with a fly ball single to left.

But in the bottom of the seventh inning, Hood forged the go ahead and game-winning run when they capitalized on some defensive miscues by the Saints. A walk, error and then a single to right field helped the Blaze's Jackie Wenzel find her way around the bases.

In the second game against the United States Coast Guard Academy, the Saints surrendered a pair of runs in the bottom of the third inning and Coast Guard never looked back.

The Scarlet and Brown cut the lead in half in the top of the fourth when Natasha Bell singled, stole second and then came around to score on a line drive single by Cailyn Welsh. But Coast Guard answered with three runs in the bottom half of the inning to extend its lead to 5-1.

The Saints chipped away once again their next turn at the plate, pushing two more runs across to pull within two at 5-3. Rebecca Allen led off the inning and reached first safely on an error by the second baseman and was eventually driven in by a Nicole Matthews single to short. Marissa Boyer, who also singled in the inning, scored the Saints other run by virtue of another error on the Coast Guard second baseman with Bell at the plate.

But that was also for the Saints on the day, as Coast Guard added three more runs in the bottom of the sixth to put the game out of reach. Welsh led the Saints, going 2-for-3 in the contest.

The next scheduled game for the Saints is set for April 1, as they'll play host to SUNY Potsdam at 3:30 p.m.