CLERMONT, Florida 3/15/11 – The Keene State College softball team dropped their first two games of the season on Tuesday, falling to No. 14 Washington University in St. Louis 6-1 and RPI 8-3 at the Dot Richardson Tournament in Clermont, Florida.

Sophomore Ashley Janssen (Lincoln, Nebraska) set the tone early for the Bears by leading off the first with a bunt single. Janssen scored on a triple from Alyssa Abramoski (Conton, Michigan), and then a wild pitch on the ensuing pitch allowed Abramoski to score.

The Owls hit the scoreboard in the top of the fifth inning. Junior Maura Bergan (Manchester, Conn.) scored the lone run for the Owls, hitting home-plate after a throwing error by the Bears catcher allowed her to score. Washington U. answered with four runs in the bottom half of the fifth inning on just two hits. The Bears took advantage of four errors in the inning by Keene State.

Junior Courtney Savoie (Exeter, N.H.) started the game for the Owls going the first four innings allowing two runs on five hits and striking out five in the losing effort. Junior Olivia Cook (Waterford, Michigan) pitched a complete game, four-hitter for her fourth victory of the season to lead Washington to the win.

In the loss to the Engineer's, the Owls hit the scoreboard first in the bottom of the second for the early 1-0 lead.

Trailing 8-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh, Haley Chandler's (Wakefield, Mass.) RBI double to left-field scoring freshman Arielle Connolly (Braintree, VT) to cut the lead to 8-2. Sophomore Jessica Fiorenza's (Wakefield, Mass.) RBI groundout scored Savoie to slim the lead to 8-3, but that's as close as the Owls would get.

Junior Emily Albin (Bethel, CT) pitched 5.2 innings in defeat. Samantha Pratt (Bristol, CT ), also a junior, pitched the final 1.1 innings for the Owls.

The Owls return to action tomorrow, as they will face New England College at 9:30 am in their only game of the day.