CAPE CORAL, Fla. – The Roger Williams University Softball team opened up the 2009 season with a split at the Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic in Florida Monday afternoon. The Hawks fell 5-6 to St. Lawrence University but defeated Albright College 6-5 in nine innings.

The Saints opened up the game with a run in the first inning on an RBI double by Molly Swan. Though St. Lawrence would later add another run in the fifth inning, the Saints did the most damage in the seventh, plating four runners to take a 6-0 lead.

Yet the Hawks rallied back in the bottom of the seventh, taking advantage of two Saint errors. Getting hits from Melissa Sereti (Shrewsbury, Mass.), Hannah Pirez (Bolton, Mass.), and Samantha Teves (Somerset, Mass.), the Hawks scored five runs in the inning and threatened to complete the comeback with the bases loaded and one out. The rally ended on a play at the plate that negated a potential game-tying sacrifice fly by Christine Bean (Southampton, Mass.)

In the second game, Albright scored a run in each of the first three innings to grab the early lead. The Hawks erased that deficit in the top of the fourth, when Pirez, Sereti, and Erica Castro (Medford, N.Y.) scored to tie the game at three apiece. The scored remained knotted over the rest of the game, sending both teams to extra innings. Pirez gave the Hawks a brief 4-3 lead with an RBI single that scored Natasha Stone (Harrison, N.Y.), yet the Lions responded with an RBI single of their own in the bottom half of the inning to send the game to the ninth.

In the ninth, the Hawks got two runs on Bean's RBI groundout and on an error by the second baseman. Both runs proved important, as Albright got one of those runs back in the bottom of the inning. Jaclyn Doolin (Miller Place, N.Y.) was able to induce a groundout to short with the tying run at second to earn her first win as a Hawk.

The Hawks take on Centenery College and SUNY New Paltz Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., respectively.