BOURBONNAIS, Ill. – The Olivet Nazarene University softball team struggled at the plate to drop a conference doubleheader to St. Ambrose Thursday afternoon at Tiger Field.

The Tigers only scratched across one run in an 8-1 setback in the opener before falling 10-6 in the nightcap.

Zoe Oshiro got the Purple & Yellow Gold out to a promising start. After Allie Timm tossed a scoreless frame in the top of the first, Oshiro roped the first pitch she saw to the wall for a leadoff triple. A wild pitch on the first offering in the next at-bat allowed her to scamper home and get the Tigers out to an early 1-0 lead.

But that would prove to be the lone run for ONU as they were left off the scoreboard for the remainder of the game. This allowed the Fighting Bees (23-18, 9-5 CCAC) to find their rhythm at the plate, smacking 13 hits to take the lead and the win.

St. Ambrose carried that momentum into the second game, plating runs in the first two innings to take a quick 3-0 lead. But ONU played small ball to get back into the game. Gwen Bender and Stephanie Hause dropped sacrifice bunts to cut the deficit to one before Timm lifted a sacrifice fly to tie the game 3-3 in the third inning.

The Fighting Bees reclaimed the lead with a three spot in the fifth. Timm and Shylar Boze tallied RBIs in the fifth inning to get the Tigers within one, but that was the closest they would get as St. Ambrose pulled away late.

The tough day drops the Tigers to 23-15 overall and 7-7 league play. They will close out the regular season at home against Saint Xavier Saturday.

--ONU—

*Contact: Evan Wild, Sports Information Director, ewwild@olivet.edu