TACOMA, Wash. – On a beautiful afternoon in Tacoma, it was a tough day on the diamond for the Pacific Lutheran University softball team.  After dropping a tough first game of the afternoon 2-1, the Lutes rallied from an 8-0 deficit in Game 2, but came up short against George Fox University 9-8 in eight innings. 
 
Game 1
Junior Erin McGrath blasted a no-doubter over the center field fence in the first inning to give the Lutes a 1-0 lead, but that would be all the offense PLU would muster against Bruin starter Ashley Davis. 
 
Davis threw a complete game to improve her record to 6-2 on the season and struck out 10 batters in the contest.  The Bruins managed solo tallies in the third and the fourth against PLU hurler Kennedy Robillard, who was the hard-luck loser of the first game of the day.  Robillard also tossed a complete game, scattering seven hits and striking out nine, while issuing just one walk. 
 
McGrath finished the first game a perfect 2-for-2 with a walk, while Casey Wright, Marley Dyer and Raynna Mekaru all had singles. 
 
Game 2
After the Lutes spotted the Bruins eight runs in the first three innings, it would not be an easy road to victory, but the home team slowly chipped away at the deficit. 
 
In the third, McGrath reached on a fielding error by the Bruin shortstop that allowed Cailey Collado and Chaella Galapon to score and McGrath moved all the way to third on another error by the shortstop on the same play.   Mikayla Chun singled in the next at-bat for the third run of the inning. 
 
McGrath was at it again later in the game.  She doubled home Galapon in the fifth and in the seventh she blasted her second home run of the day to center field to make the score 8-7.  Casey Wright followed McGrath's lead in the next at-bat and tied the score with a homer of her own to center. 
 
After Molly House and Cassidy Conrad tossed 4 1/3 innings of scoreless relief of PLU starter Z Ellis, the Lutes turned to senior Robillard in the eighth.  She hit the first batter she faced, which proved to be the difference maker as that runner eventually came around to score on a sacrifice fly and the home team went down in order in the bottom half. 
 
Offensively, Galapon and McGrath had two hits each, with Galapon scoring three times and McGrath driving in three runs.  Collado also scored twice, had a double and drove in a run. 
 
The Lutes will look to even the series tomorrow when the two teams will play a pair of games beginning at 12:00 p.m.