HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- The fifth-ranked Wayne State University softball team (1-1 overall) split its opening day contests losing 1-0 in eight innings to Trevecca Nazarene (1-0 overall), before posting a 2-0 victory over St. Joseph's College (0-1 overall).

The season opener was a pitchers duel between Warrior sophomore Lyndsay Butler (Cambridge, Ont. / Centennial C.V.I.) and the Trojans Haley Fagan.  Both hurlers put up goose eggs for the first seven innings allowing just a combined six hits.

TNU totaled two of their four hits in the bottom of the first on back-to-back one-out singles, but two consecutive ground outs ended the threat.

Sophomore Devin Hentschel (Wyoming, Mich. / Rogers) had a one-out single in the second following a walk to Emily Cava (Brampton, Ont. / Cardinal Leger S.S.), but a strikeout and pick-off concluded the frame.

Sophomore Allie Buchanan (Cambridge, Ont. / Galt C.I.) had a one-out single in the third, but Fagan set down 10 straight Warriors until junior Jade McGarr (Guelph, Ont. / St. James Catholic) reached on a hit-by-pitch.

Meanwhile Butler retired 17 of 19 TNU hitters until a two-out walk in the bottom of the seventh.

WSU was unable to score in the top of the eighth using the international tie-breaker rule, but the Trojans advanced the placed runner on a ground out, then Jordan Griner scored on a suicide squeeze.

Butler totaled nine strikeouts to one walk in her 7.1 innings in the circle.  Fagan (1-0) recorded four strikeouts with two walks.
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In the nightcap, the Warriors scored once in the bottom of the first and added an insurance run in the third for the 2-0 win over the Pumas.

Senior Nikki Fulton (Stratford, Ont. / St. Michael Catholic S.S.) led off the bottom of the first with a single and advanced to second on a wild pitch.  McGarr's single to center plated Fulton with WSU's first run of the season.

In the third, Fulton had a one-out single and moved to second on a ground out.  Butler then followed with a triple to left to make it 2-0.

WSU senior pitcher Briana Lee (Canton, Mich. / Salem) limited SJC to three hits (one single and two doubles) and never allowed a baserunner past second base.  She struck out seven and walked three for her 42nd career win.

Puma starter Jessica Cates pitched the first three innings allowing both runs on four hits with one strikeout.  Briana Wagner scattered two hits in her three innings of work.

Fulton and Butler each went 2-for-3, while Hentschel extended her hitting streak to three games dating back to WSU's  final game last year's in the College World Series.

Wayne State will play in-region foe Bellarmine at 10 am on Saturday, before squaring off against North Alabama at noon.