CLERMONT, Fla. -- The Lawrence University softball team finished its spring break trip to Florida with a pair of nonconference losses to Bates College on Friday.
    Bates held off the Vikings 5-4 in the opener, and the Bobcats took the second game 9-1 in six innings.
    In the first game, Mikayla Jeneske went 3-for-4 and scored a run for the Vikings. Jordan Wallin-Swanson went 2-for-3 and scored a run, and Janessa Gonzalez picked up a double and a run scored for Lawrence (3-13).
    The Vikings led 1-0 after manufacturing a run in the third, but Bates (6-2) struck for four runs in the fifth. The Bobcats tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh, but the Vikings rallied in the bottom half of the inning.
    Gonzalez started the inning with a double, and Jeneske followed with a single. Mattigan Haller reached on a fielder's choice, and Gonzalez scored to trim the lead to 5-2. After a strikeout, Wallin-Swanson singled to score Jeneske to cut the margin to 5-3. Kourtney Mercer then singled to score Haller and the lead was down to 5-4. Bates then got a pair of popups to end the game.
    Xiomara Rueda-Marshall made the start and went 4.1 innings for the Vikings. She allowed 10 hits and three earned runs while striking out one and walking one. 
    Bates pulled away early in the nightcap by scoring twice in the first, twice in the second and twice in the fourth. 
    Lawrence got its only run in the second when Jeneske singled to score Mary Boyle. The Bobcats scored three times in the bottom of the sixth to end the game via the run rule.
    Mercer led Lawrence's attack by going 3-for-3. Mercer made the start and gave up four runs over 1.2 innings and took the loss.