TOPEKA, KAN. – Like day one, the University of Sioux Falls Softball Team (2-2) split a pair of games at the Washburn Invitational. The Cougars, behind the pitching of Hanna Cress and a solid offensive attack, defeated Pittsburg State, 6-0, in the opener on Saturday. Then, USF dropped an 8-0 decision to Fort Hays State as they managed just three hits.

USF will conclude play at the Washburn Invitational on Sunday with games against Washburn at noon and Central Missouri at 2 pm before returning home.

"It was a tale of two teams today," said USF Head Coach Shannon Pivovar. "We had everything clicking in game one, playing as a team and then couldn't string anything together in game two as individuals. We need to learn from it and be better as a team. We have got a lot of softball left to play and thankfully we get to give it another go tomorrow," said Pivovar.

USF 6 Pitt State 0

For the second time in two days, Hanna Cress had a dominating pitching performance to lead USF to a 6-0 win over Pittsburg State on Saturday. Cress allowed just four hits and had three strikeouts with three walks. Shayla Shaver finished with an inning of shutout relief in her first appearance at USF.

As for Cress, she has a 0.69 earned run average through two games with a complete game in two starts. In 13.0 innings she has allowed nine hits with one earned run by walking four and striking out six hitters.  As for now, opponents are hitting .196 against Cress.

The offense was led by freshman catcher Damaris Cuevas, who had three hits and a run scored in four at bats in her debut at USF. Also USF had two more hits from Kylan Straight who collected her seventh and eighth hits of the season. She also had two RBI. USF had RBI from Frankie Mickelson who also had a hit, Kaitlyn Van Der Zwaag, who had a hit and RBI along with Lexie Swift and Mika Rodriguez. Shayla Running had a hit and two runs scored in the eight hit attack.

In the win, USF scored two runs in the first and added four more in the fifth inning. In the first inning, Mickelson singled and scored on Van Der Zwaag's RBI base hit. Running, who reached on fielding error, scored on Swift's fielder's choice grounder.

In the fifth inning Running singled and Cuevas had her first extra-base hit with a double. Running scored on Rodriguez's fielder's choice ground ball. Cuevas scored on an error. When Straight doubled to center, Rachel Klassen, who had reached by walk, and Rodriguez both scored as the Cougars plated four runs on three hits.

Fort Hays State 8 USF 0
USF struggled out of the gate and FHSU jumped to an early lead as they took an 8-0 decision over the Cougars in the second game on Saturday.

USF managed just three hits and committed three errors in the game. For the first time this season, Kylan Straight was held without a hit but she had a stolen base. Straight leads USF with six hits and seven total bases.

USF had base hits from Frankie Mickelson, Shayla Running and freshman Damaris Cuevas, who finished the day with four hits in six at bats and an .667 batting average.

Freshman pitcher Shayla Shaver (0-1) started and took the loss for USF. She allowed nine hits, walked four hitters and gave up six earned runs across five innings. However, she had five strikeouts. Hailey Chapman (2-1) earned the win for FHSU. She had four strikeouts in throwing a five-inning shutout. Loren Beggs had two hits and two RBI and both Grace Philop and Sarah Tiffany had two hits and three runs scored at the top of the FHSU lineup.

FHSU jumped to a quick 3-0 lead with RBIs from Loren Beggs, Lexi Kagan and Lily Sale in the first inning. Cougars placed two runners on in the first inning but did not score.  In the third inning, USF loaded the bases but a double play ended the threat. Later, FHSU scored twice in the fourth inning and pushed across three more in the fifth inning.