AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The Nichols softball team was defeated by Ramapo and St. Mary's (IN) on the final day of its spring break trip on Friday morning at the Auburndale Softball Complex. With the losses, the Bison dropped to 2-8 on the season. 

After opening the season in Florida, Nichols will return to the Bay State for a Wednesday, March 22 doubleheader at Wellesley, with game one set to begin at 3:00 p.m. 

Ramapo 7, Nichols 6 

After the Roadrunners got on the board with two runs in the opening frame, the Bison responded with two runs of their own in the third to even the score at two, scoring on back-to-back Ramapo errors. 

In the fourth, Ramapo's Jaclyn Monaco reached on an error to send Nichole Cerasi home and was later pushed in on a Katie Rygiel single. That same half inning, Rygiel came in to score on a groundout to make it 5-2. Nichols would respond in the bottom half when Mackenzie Jackson took advantage of a wild pitch, breaking for home and scoring to cut the deficit to 2 runs. 

Ramapo would add two runs over the fifth and sixth innings to give itself a 7-3 cushion. Up to their final at-bats, Nichols would use offense from Erin Gour, who singled up the middle to plate Allie Brown  and Jackson who used a two-RBI base knock up the middle to knock in Mallory Gilmore and Bailey Littlefield, but the late push came up one run short of completing the comeback, as the Roadrunners held on, 7-6. 

St. Mary's (IN) 7, Nichols 2 

St. Mary's got on the board early with Libby Bierbaum launching a two-run homer to left center. From there, the Belles went on to advance their lead to 7-0 thanks in part to a four-run third inning. 

In the top half of the fifth, Allie Brown would provide a spark at the plate, knocking in two runs on a single up the middle. 

The Bison would be shut out over the remainder of the game to fall 7-2. Freshman Laney Martin tossed four scoreless innings in relief for the Bison, allowing just three hits and striking out three.