ST. PAUL - The Martin Luther College softball team opened its season with a pair of losses against Finlandia by the scores of 8-3 and 10-2 (five innings) following a doubleheader on Friday afternoon at Northwestern-St. Paul.

Finlandia 8, MLC 3

The Knights opened the day and the season with an 8-3 defeat to the Lions.

Finlandia jumped on top early 2-0 in the first inning, and then added six more runs the rest of the way off MLC starting pitcher Brett Burger (0-1).

The Knights were held scoreless until the bottom of the fifth inning, when Lisa Hoffer and Elena Hoffman each drove in one run with base hits. Hoffer also drove in the team's final run in the seventh inning with a double, giving her a 4-4 game at the plate in her MLC softball debut.

Burger pitched a complete game for the Knights, allowing all eight runs on 10 hits and six walks while striking out three.

First-year outfielder Jordyn Heckendorf scored two of the team's three runs.

Finlandia 10, MLC 2 (five innings)

The Lions completed the sweep with a 10-2 win in five innings in the second game.

MLC erased a 1-0 deficit in the top of the third inning with another RBI base hit by Hoffer, but Finlandia answered with two runs in the home half, and then seven more runs in the next two frames to score the win.

Hoffer had another strong game at the plate, going 2-3 with an RBI to push her two-game total to 6-7 with two doubles and three runs batted in.

Megan Pung (0-1) started on the mound for MLC and took the loss, allowing six runs on eight hits while striking out four in four innings.

MLC fell to 0-2 on the season after the two defeats. Finlandia improved to 2-4 with the two wins.

The Knights will return to action on March 30, when they host Minnesota Morris in a doubleheader scheduled to start at 2 p.m.