It was an up-and-down weekend for the Missouri Southern women’s softball team last weekend as they went 2-2 while hosting the Terri Mathis-Zenner Memorial Tournament.

During day one of the two-day tournament the Lions swept both victories with a 1-0 win over Illinois-Springfield backed by seven innings of shutout softball from senior Tiffany Bennett.

“Saturday we threw well,” Head Coach Bill Gray said. “Tiffany (nine strikeouts in the first game) and Nicole did a good job, along with some timely hitting. We took advantage of an error or two also.”

The Lions won their second game on Saturday 3-0 over Wisconsin-Parkside, and again pitching was the catalyst in the victory as Nicole Reed threw seven scoreless innings, only allowing two hits while striking out eight.

The second day of the tournament did not go as well as the first. Southern fell in the first game by a 3-1 score at the hands of Central Oklahoma. Nicole Reed had a solid pitching performance only allowing four hits and three earned runs, but the Lions left 12 runners on base.

“We had multiple opportunities to put runs up on the board,” Gray said. “If you leave that many runners on base it’s going to come back and bite you. Our hitting depends on who you’re facing and you have to make adjustments at the plate. Saturday we did that, but Sunday we didn’t.”

The Lions fell again in the second game 8-4 against Drury. The Lions left eight runners on base during the game.

“We’ve just got to do some of the little things better,” Gray said. “We took ourselves out of some innings because we didn’t execute on the offensive side.

“We’d catch a break, but then give it right back.”

The Lions, now at 9-7 overall, will stay home to take on Upper Iowa in a doubleheader tomorrow.

The Lions need to put both the hitting and pitching aspects of the game together at the same time if they want two victories.