Softball | 3/10/2010 9:15:22 AM

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. - Methodist University opened up their spring break trip with two losses in Florida to nationally ranked Emerson College and Lake Forest College.

Emerson was recently ranked 18th in the NFCA national poll and took an early 3-0 lead in the second inning. The Lions added a run in the third before the Monarchs got on the board in the fourth. Crystal Metzger singled through the right side and moved to second on a walk from Katie Byrd. Kristina Wolfrom loaded the bases with a single and a sacrifice fly from Katie Scheller scored Metzger.

Methodist cut the lead to 4-2 in the sixth with a RBI single from Kalyn Howard to score Byrd but Emerson went ahead 5-2 in the seventh. The Monarchs rallied in the bottom of the seventh with Alyssa Hara drawing the leadoff walk. Wolfrom came up with a two-out home run to move within one and Scheller drew a walk, but the Lions recorded the final out to preserve the win.

Alex Bass pitched the complete game for Methodist scattering six hits with five strikeouts. Wolfrom was 2-for-4 on the day with two RBI.

In game two of the day, Lake Forest took the 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first but Methodist came back and added a run in the top of the second when Byrd scored on a RBI single from Alex Winters. The Foresters tacked on four runs on four hits in the bottom of the second to lead 6-1. Two additional runs in the third increased their lead to 8-1. The Monarchs added a run in the fifth on a RBI double from Darci Martin to score Cortney Kerns, but Lake Forest prevailed with the 8-2 win.

Emily Beck pitched two innings with two strikeouts while Lysuelle Slaughter finished in the circle with three strikeouts in four innings.

The Monarchs had three hits from Jordan Adams, Martin and Winters.

Methodist will take on Mount Union and Moravian on Wednesday.

Box Score 1
Box Score 2