PAINESVILLE, OHIO –  Playing the first two of six straight at Slattery Field, the Lake Erie College softball team's week-long homestand got off to a rough start as the Storm dropped a pair of games to visiting Mercyhurst College on Tuesday (March 23).

The Lakers won by the scores of 9-5 and 12-4 to improve to 13-11 while Lake Erie, which has lost three straight, falls to 4-16.

In the opener, Mercyhurst jumped out to an 8-0 lead after two innings and led 9-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth after Jen Bower belted her second home run of the game. 

With reliever Lyndsie Delprato (McDonald, Pa./Fort Cherry) keeping the Lakers in check, Lake Erie made a game of it by scoring four runs in the bottom of the fifth. Junior outfielder Danielle Finkler (Chardon, Ohio/Berskhire) hit a two-run homer, her second of the season, to start the scoring and sophomore catcher Megan Foley (Brunswick, Ohio/Brunswick) and junior Brittany Sostre (Parma, Ohio/Valley Forge) followed with run-scoring hits. 

The Storm scored an unearned run in the sixth and had a runner on third with no one out, but Kristi Janoske retired the next three hitters in order to thwart the rally.

Delprato was solid out of the bullpen, allowing just one run on seven hits in 5 1/3 innings. She walked just one and struck out five. Janoske surrendered just one unearned run on four hits in 5 2/3 innings to pick up the win.

The Lakers' offense in game one was led by Bower with three hits and four runs-batted-in in four at-bats.  Elizabeth Maier had three hits for Mercyhurst, which despite scoring nine runs left 15 runners on base.

Finkler, freshman Erica Tanski (Painesville, Ohio/Riverside) and sophomore Jamie Wodecki (Northfield, Ohio/St. Peter Chanel) each had two hits for Lake Erie.

Bower started the scoring in game two with an RBI double in the top of the first. Emily Redig led off the third with a home run and Anna Glomb and Julie Harmon had back-to-back RBI doubles later in the inning to give the Lakers a 4-0 lead.

The Storm cut the deficit in half with Wodecki's two-run double in the bottom of the inning and picked up another run in the fourth on a double by sophomore pitcher Sam Ronde (Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg). 

But in the top of the sixth, Redig hit her second home run of the game – a three-run shot off Pam Bykowski (Perry, Ohio/Perry/Armstrong Atlantic)- to put the Lakers up four. He Storm loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the inning against Janoske, but did not score.

The Lakers tacked on five runs in the top of the seventh, highlighted by a three-run homer by Michelle Schmitz, to put the game out of reach.

Redig had three hits and drove in four runs in the game while Kristen Fyffe added three hits for the Lakers. Janoske (6-8) earned the win with 2 1/3 scoreless innings of relief.  Foley had a pair of hits to lead Lake Erie. Ronde (1-6) took the loss, allowing four runs on nine hits in five innings.

Lake Erie continues its homestand on Thursday, March 25, against West Liberty University at 3 p.m.