Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 KENTFIELD, Calif. — After dropping a five-inning 8-0 loss, the Dominican University of California women's softball team bounced back but let a late lead slip away as the Lady Penguins dropped game two 7-3 and fell in Saturday's Pacific West Conference doubleheader to visiting Notre Dame de Namur.

Dominican (8-40/1-23) managed just three hits in game one against NDNU (23-16/13-8) pitcher Sammy McConvey (11-6). The Argos started quickly with two runs in the first and three in the second. Three more runs in the fifth ended things early. Junior pitcher Karly Harris (6-20), who threw a complete game gem in her last outing, lasted just 1.2 innings.

In game two, the Lady Penguins backed freshman hurler Ashlyn Moriarity (2-19) early with a run in the first on junior Kayleigh Klingberg's liner up the middle to score sophomore shortstop Kayla Rodriguez. Then, in the fourth, Dominican added on. Junior second baseman Rachel Santiago led off with a walk and a Sarah McKenzie bunt spun between fielders for an infield hit. Two batters later, Rodriguez walked to load the bases. Freshman outfielder Tori Johnson drove home Santiago and sophomore third baseman Leslie Mesa followed suit with a single that brought home McKenzie to make it 3-0.

However, bases-loaded opportunities after both offensive outburts, as well as two runners in scoring position stranded in the fourth,  came back to haunt Dominican. NDNU shaved off the Lady Penguins' pair of insurance runs in the sixth with a two-run rally fueled by two hits, including a triple, and a pair of walks. Moriarity settled down and worked out of a bases-loaded jam to preserve the lead. NDNU capitalized in the seventh though. The Argos rocked Moriarity for three runs and took the lead, 4-3. They took advantage of a pair of costly infielder errors to keep the inning alive to score another run,then plated two inherited runners off of Harris to put the game out of reach at 7-3.

Johnson went 3-for-4 with an RBI in game two to lift her average to .266. She is now second on the team in hits (41), behind Mesa (43), who also leads the team in batting average (.321).

The Lady Penguins return to the College of Marin softball field on Saturday, April 20 when they host BYU-Hawaii in another PacWest doubleheader. First pitch is slated for 1:00 p.m. and live stats will be available at www.dominicanathletics.com/live.