Mankato, MN -  The Martin Luther College softball team opened the season with a pair of defeats to Carleton College (10-2) and Concordia Moorhead (8-0) on Saturday, February 18 at the MSU Dome.

    Carleton 10, MLC 2 (5 innings)

   Carleton would get the bats hot to start the game, taking a 3-0 lead in the first innings of play, due in large part to a 2-run homer by Bryanna Schaffer. At the top of the 4th, MLC would make things interesting when Sarah Vance drove in the first runs of the Knights' season off a single. MLC went into the bottom of the fourth inning down 3-2, but fell victim to an offensive barrage from the Knights (Carleton) and would give up 7 runs in the inning.

Madison Uhlenbrauck (0-1) would pitch 4 innings, allowing 10 runs on 10 hits.

    Concordia Moorhead 8, MLC 0 (5 innings)

The second game of the day took place at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday and the Knights received a scoreless outing from starting pitcher Jessica Horn up until the 5th inning, where the Cobbers figured out Horn and put up 8 runs in the final inning. The rally for Concordia Moorhead started off on an error and from there the runs started to pour in for the Cobbers off of four consecutive singles.

MLC was held to just two hits for the game, with Lisa Hoffer providing both of the hits in her two plate appearances. Despite the pair of losses, MLC did show some positive moments of the play on the diamond and first-year head coach Becca Doering expressed her enthusiasm for the team by saying, "After our first two games I saw some things that we are doing well and things we need to work on. I was very proud of our team's effort and I am excited to get back to practice this week. look forward to seeing what we can accomplish as a team this season."