Recap
The Nichols College softball team opened the 2019 season with a loss to SUNY New Paltz before rallying from a 3-0 deficit to score a 3-3 tie with Loras College Saturday afternoon at Hancock Park in Clermont, Fla.
 
Game One: SUNY New Paltz 5, Nichols 0
Junior Cara Mayhew went 3-for-3 with a double and two singles while classmate Amanda Alioto also singled for the Bison. Junior Alexis Ferris started for the Bison and surrendered 10 hits and five runs with three walks and three strikeouts in six innings. Michaela Damore belted a two-run home run in the second for the Hawks.
 
Game Two: Nichols 3, Loras 3 (6 inn.)
After falling behind 3-0 in the top of the first, the Bison pushed across one run in the second and two in the fifth to tie the game before rain stopped the contest after six. Senior Jessica Kuelling grounded out to second in the bottom of the second to bring in the first run for NC. In the fifth, freshman Candice Nelson dropped a double inside the right field line to cut the home team's deficit to one before Alioto's RBI groundout plated Kuelling and knotted the score. In her first collegiate start, Nelson gave up seven hits and three runs in five innings of work. She walked one and fanned two.
 
Next games
Sunday, March 17 vs Ripon (1:30 p.m.) and Wis.-Superior (3:45 p.m.)