CLEVELAND – The Thiel College softball team lost a pair of non-conference games on the road Tuesday to the Case Western Reserve Spartans. Thiel lost the first game 8-7 before falling 6-1 in the second game.
 
The Spartans took a 2-0 lead in the first inning of the first game, but Thiel took the lead (4-2) with a 4-run effort in the top of the third. Caitlyn Carney (Lake Milton, Ohio/Jackson Milton) drove in pair of runs in the third on a single to left field while Miranda Reesman (Vandergrift, Pa./Leechburg) and Alana Callahan (Austintown, Ohio/Austintown Fitch) also recorded one RBI apiece.
 
The Spartans reclaimed the lead (5-4) with three runs in the bottom of the third. After a scoreless fourth inning, the Tomcats tied up the game in the fifth when Quinn Ursprung (Bel Air, Md. /C Milton Wright) brought home Callahan on a double to right field. However, Case scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth to take the lead back, 7-5.
 
Carney hit a two-run homer in the top of the seventh forcing another tie, but the Spartans eked out a run in the bottom of the seventh to earn the win.
 
Carney went 4-for-4 with four RBIs in the first game. She hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning. A.J. Corradi (Youngstown, Ohio/Austintown Fitch) went 3-for-4 with a double while Ursprung went 2-for-4 with a double and one RBI.
 
Mackenzie Gullette (Dunlap, Ill. /Dunlap) took the loss. In 6 1-3 innings, she allowed five earned runs on 10 hits with a strikeout.
 
The Spartans broke a scoreless tie with a pair of runs in the third inning of the second game. Reesman cut the lead in half with an RBI in the fourth inning, but the Spartans scored a run in the bottom of the fourth and three more runs in the sixth to earn their second win of the day.
 
Jessica Kelley (Sarver, Pa./Freeport) led the Tomcats at the plate in the second game with two hits, one of which was a double.
 
Madison Fullmer (Elyria, Ohio/Elyria) allowed five earned runs in six innings of work in the second game.
 
The Tomcats will take on the Waynesburg Yellow Jackets on the road Wednesday. The first game of the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) doubleheader is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m.