The Missouri Southern State University Softball team started its season last Friday in Bentonville, Ark., in the UAM Divison II Softball Classic.

After starting with the lead in both games, the Lions dropped their first two match-ups against Illinois-Springfield and the Quincy (Ill.) Hawks.

On Saturday of the tournament, the Lions played against Southern Nazarene. They took the lead in the first inning by earning five runs, but their opponent  came back, beating the Lions by just one run with a final score of 9-8.

The Lions rebounded that same day against Ouachita Baptist. After maintaining the lead the whole game, the Lions secured their lead in the bottom of the sixth inning by adding four more runs to the scoreboard. For their first win of 2014, sophomore Haley Kinnison pitched the complete game, allowing eight hits and striking out seven hitters.

Senior infielder Brooklyn Farrell said, “For not being on the dirt for two weeks, we did pretty decent. It was a slow start but by the end of the weekend we had it figured out.”

For the last day of the tournament, the Lions took on William Jewell and Southwestern Oklahoma State. After losing their first game of the day against William Jewell, the Lions bounced back yet again to beat Southwestern Oklahoma State with a score of 7-2.

“I’m very excited to see how we carry out the momentum we had coming out of the tournament,” said Farrell. “There’s not a single girl on this team that isn’t one heck of a ball player, so I have no doubt that we are going to kill it on the diamond this season.”

The Lions will be back in action tomorrow at 1 p.m. and again at 3 p.m. against Drury. The Lions will then play at Drury the next day, Feb. 23.