Edgewood Box | Dubuque box | Updated stats
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Seniors Casey Mathers and Kelly Kocher each pitched complete games Thursday as Nazareth secured its first two softball victories of the season at Lincoln Park. Nazareth defeated Edgewood of Wisconsin 3-1 in the first game and blanked Dubuque of Iowa in the second game 2-0.

Nazareth improved to 2-6 overall. Edgewood is 7-7 and Dubuque is 6-6. Nazareth plays two more games Friday in Arizona, vs. Wisconsin-LaCrosse at 3:30 p.m. eastern time and vs. Lakeland at 5:30 p.m.

Sophomore Liz Toner drove in all three runs and Mathers pitched a three-hitter as Nazareth defeated Edgewood. In the second game, Kocher tossed a three-hitter and had 16 strikeouts.

Against Edgewood, Mathers walked just one batter and struck out five over seven innings of pitching. She also had a single in four at bats.

Nazareth trailed 1-0 after two innings, but tied the score in the fifth inning. Shauna Bardanis led off with a single for one of eight Nazareth hits in the game. She moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Kailey Ritch and advanced to third on a single by Sarah Cipperly. Toner then grounded into a force play, enabling Bardanis to score the tying run.

Nazareth scored the winning runs in the top of the seventh after Bardanis walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch. She advanced to third on a single by Cipperly and both runners scored on a triple by Toner. Mathers then set the Eagles down in order in the bottom half of the seventh to clinch the win.

In the Dubuque game, Nazareth scored single runs in the first and third innings. Mathers stroked a first-inning double to score Ritch, who walked to open the inning. In the third inning, Nazareth had three hits, including a run-scoring single by senior Brittany Patenaude, who chased home Cipperly, who reached on a single.

Kocher, meanwhile, did the rest as she yielded three harmless singles in picking up her first win of the season.