WHEELING, Ill. - Taking on one of the best teams in the CCAC the TIU Softball team suffered a tough pair of losses to the Tigers, dropping the opening game of the series 9-1 before a 8-5 extra inning loss in game two on Tueday evening.

The Trojan offense struggled in the opening game of the day, unable to string hits together to keep pace with ONU. Hannah Gentry had the best day at the plate for TIU, going 3-3 with a walk, but the strong play from the Freshman was not enough to rally the Trojans back in a 9-1 defeat.

In game two the Trojans started to piece together their offense, which led to an early lead in th opening innings. TIU rattled off three runs in the opening inning of the game, with Sara Grygus belting a two RBI double to get the Trojans on the board, followed by a Tenley Bozzi RBI single to make it 3-0.

The Tigers would not go down easily, as ONU clawed their way back in the third inning, after 4 unanswered runs in the 3rd made it 4-3 in favor of ONU.

Grygus and Gentry continued their strong offensive day in the later innings of the game, with each of them driving in a run to put the Trojans up 5-4 heading to the bottom of the 6th.

Trailing by one, ONU showed why they are one of the top teams in the CCAC as the Tigers took advantage of a few Trojan errors, tying the game 6-6. After neither side was able to score in the 7th the game headed to extras, where the Tigers closed out an 8-5 in part to three unearned runs in the final moments.

The Trojans will look to bounce back tomorrow afternoon when they host St. Xavier University at 3:00 PM.