BOWIE, Md. – Bowie State University softball dropped a non-conference doubleheader on Wednesday afternoon, falling short to East Stroudsburg University by scores of 7-2 and 9-8. The loss drops the Bowie State season mark to 8-12 overall.
 
Sophomore Megan Visele (Great Mills, Md.) paced Bowie State with four hits in seven plate appearances, which included two doubles and a pair of RBI over the two-game set. Juniors Nicoleen Ochoa (Madison, Ohio) and Jacqueline Pickering accounted for three hits each for the Bulldogs. Junior Ja'Seph Smith (Bowie, Md.) and sophomore Tiffany Bearns (Lusby, Md.) added two hits each while junior Inaya Jones (Baltimore, Md.) and sophomore Jaelyn Belt (Glen Burnie, Md.) rounded out the Bulldog hitters with one each.
 
Danielle Wissinger (Hagerstown, Md.) had five hits and five RBI and Katherine Liedberg (Stroudsburg, Pa.) had six of East Stroudsburg University's 13 steals on the day.
 
East Stroudsburg's Kaylee Hazewski (Middletown, Del.) added two hits and two steals in Game one, while Rachael Liguori (Gaithersburg, Md.) allowed only one earned run.
 
Madison Vicendese (Ellicott City, Md.) went 3-for-5 with a triple and two runs scored in the nightcap. The Warriors (6-9) led 6-2 heading into the seventh inning before the Bulldogs scored four times to send the game to extras. ESU plated two in the 10th on an error and an RBI sacrifice bunt by junior Heather Visco (Atco, N.J.), and a game-ending double play with runners on the corner in the bottom half of the inning clinched the victory.
 
Wissinger was 2-for-4 with three RBI in the game one and 3-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored in Game two.
 
In game one, East Stroudsburg was aided by seven Bowie State errors which led to four unearned runs in the opener. The first of those runs came in the second inning, tying the score up at 1-1 after the Bulldogs had grabbed an early lead in the first.
 
The visiting Warriors moved in front with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth. A sacrifice fly from Madison Oren (Easton, Pa.) scored Rae Holden (Warminster, Pa.) after she had reached on an error to begin the frame. Liedberg was next up, and she drew a walk, moved into scoring position on her second steal of the contest and scored on an error by Bowie State's right fielder to make the score 3-1.
 
An RBI triple by Wissinger and another Bulldog error upped the margin to 5-1 in the fifth, and the Warriors plated two more in the following inning on Wissinger's two-run, two-out double.
 
Liguori worked 1-2-3 innings in the second and fifth frames, and she surrendered only four hits across seven innings of work.
 
In game two, the Warriors were comfortably in front for a majority of the nightcap. They led 3-0 after three innings, with Wissinger and Samantha Pickar (Allentown, Pa.) registering RBI singles in the third.
 
Wissinger's long ball to lead off the fifth made it 4-1. After Bowie State tacked on a run in the bottom of the frame, Visco delivered an RBI double in the sixth, and Bianca Monterosso (Abington, Pa.) added extra insurance with a RBI bunt single in the seventh to give the visitors a 6-2 edge.
 
The Bulldogs, though, had their first five batters reach base in the bottom of the seventh, and Belt forced extras with a one-out sacrifice fly.
 
With international tiebreaker rules in effect, teams started each extra inning with a baserunner on second. Both took advantage in the eighth, as East Stroudsburg went up 8-7 on a run-scoring single by Visco and Bowie State retied the game with a two-out triple from Pickering.
 
Each side stranded runners on third base in the ninth, sending the Warriors to a 10th inning. Monterosso started the inning on second, and she scored after an error by the first baseman. ESU added a second run on Visco's third RBI of the contest.
 
Liguori, who entered in place of Erica Molinaro (Stroudsburg, Pa.) back in the sixth inning, worked around trouble in the bottom half to seal the win. With the score 9-8 and runners on the corner with one out, Liguori induced a grounder to Pickar, who threw the runner out at home. The trailing runner was then thrown out trying to advance to third to end the game.
 
Bowie State returns to conference play on Saturday (4/1), traveling to Virginia State for a twinbill beginning at 1 p.m.