Dayton Flyers

Box Score (Seton Hall) | Box Score (Elon)

ELON, N.C. – The University of Dayton softball team dropped its season-opening games to the Seton Hall Pirates (2-1) and Elon Phoenix (6-1) on Saturday in the Elon Invitational. Dayton lost to the Pirates 4-1 and to Elon 5-0.

The Flyers (0-2) were highlighted by sophomore Kathleen Maloof, who went 3-for-6 on the day. Maloof, last year’s Atlantic 10 leader in doubles, smacked her first of the season for an RBI.

Freshman left-handed pitcher Alysha Isaacson was solid out of the bullpen in both games for UD. Isaacson pitched four innings of relief without surrendering a run. Isaacson also had two strikeouts on the day.

“We weren’t able to get enough momentum going on offense today,” Dayton Head Coach Cara LaPlaca said. “Alysha did a great job coming in to relieve our starters. It allowed us to have a shot at mounting a comeback in both games.”

Maloof started the season off on the right foot for the Flyers.  Her double in the bottom of the third inning against Seton Hall put UD ahead by one run.

A costly error in the top of the fourth inning surrendered the go-ahead runs as the Pirates took the lead 2-1. In the sixth inning SHU secured its lead tallying two more runs to win 4-1.

Junior Sarah Wedel (0-1) started the first game of the day. Wedel had four strikeouts and one walk in five innings pitched. Two of Seton Hall’s four runs were unearned.

Dayton was unable to get its offense to click in its game against Elon. The Flyers had six hits, two of which came from the bat of Maloof. Sophomore Amanda Daly (0-1) allowed four earned runs in four innings pitched.

“We are looking forward to getting back on the field tomorrow and we are ready for the challenge ahead of us,” LaPlaca said. “We saw good things from our freshmen and we have a solid core to build around.”

Dayton returns to action on Sunday against Morgan State at 12:15 p.m. and Elon at 2:30 p.m. Live Stats are available at DaytonFlyers.com.