AVE MARIA, Fla. --- The Ave Maria softball team dropped a pair of games to visiting NCAA DII Eckerd College on Saturday afternoon. The Lady Gyrenes fell 6-4 in game one before dropping a 9-0 decision in game two.
 
The Blue and Green fall to 4-6 on the season. The Lady Gyrenes will return to the field on Sunday when they welcome another NCAA DII opponent, the University of Tampa, to AMU Softball Field. Game one of the doubleheader is schedule to start at 12 p.m.
 
In game one, the Lady Gyrenes fell behind early when Eckerd homered in the top of the first inning. Cheyenne Benson settled down in the circle after that and pitched three scoreless innings before the Tritons added a pair of runs in the fifth. Eckerd added three more in the top of the sixth before AMU was able to get on the board with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning.
 
The Lady Gyrenes' runs came on an Alyssa Colding double to score Benson and a McKayla Jeter single to bring in Colding.
 
Benson pitched 5.1 innings and allowed six runs on nine hits and five walks. She struck out seven. Jessenia Gonzalez pitched the final 1.2 innings of game one and allowed one hit and two walks while striking out one.
 
Eckerd again jumped out to an early lead in game two. The Tritons got on the board with a home run and a bases loaded walk in the first to take a 2-0 lead. Eckerd added three runs in the fourth and four in the fifth to take game two 9-0 in five innings.
 
Emily Lemin took the loss in the game two, allowing nine runs, six earned, over 4.1 innings. Lemin allowed 10 hits and walked four while striking out one. Hali Delashmet pitched two-thirds of an inning and allowed one hit and struck out one.