Saginaw Valley Box
Tiffin Box

KISSIMMEE, Fla. – Thirteenth-ranked Saginaw Valley State University used a 9-run first inning to jump in front en-route to a five-inning 10-0 victory, while the Tiffin University Dragons scored all five of their runs in the first two innings and held out for a 5-1 win, as the Northern State University Wolves dropped a pair of games on their fifth playing day at the Rebel Spring Games on Wednesday afternoon.

The losses dropped NSU to 4-10 on the season with just two more games left in the Wolves' week-long stay in Florida.

Despite the Cardinals' big first inning, NSU starter Kelley Suggs gave up just one earned run in that stanza.  Freshman Casey Mason, who came on in relief in the bottom of the first, finished out the game for the Wolves, also giving up an unearned run in the third inning.  Mason notched three strike-outs in the outing, the first of her collegiate career.

Offensively, the Wolves managed just one hit in the game, that coming in the form of a 2-out double off the bat of sophomore Whitney Luhring in the top of the fourth inning.

In game two, the Dragons of Tiffin University put three across the plate in the first inning and added two more in the second.  NSU sophomore Kelli Bornander then settled in for the remainder of the contest, facing the minimum number of three batters in four of the final five innings of play.

The damage, however, was already done, as the Wolves got just three hits in the game.  NSU did take advantage of a pair of Dragon errors in the first inning to put one run on the board.  Sophomore Brooke Norris reached on one of those errors and scored on the second to give the Wolves their first and only score of the day.

NSU is slated to close out their stay at the Rebel Games on Thursday with a pair of games against Wheeling Jesuit and Wisconsin-Parkside, weather-permitting.  Game times are set for 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. (EST).