The Ursuline College softball team dropped a pair of road contests at Malone on Friday afternoon.
 
The Pioneers took game one 8-3 and held on in the second game despite a late rally by the Arrows to win 7-6.
 
In game one, Ursuline jumped in front early with single runs in the first and second innings. Sara Fessler started things with a one-out bunt single and eventually came around to score when Nicole Rawlings reached on a fielding error to make it 1-0.
 
Leading off the second inning, freshman Kiley Gallagher hit her third home run of the season to straight away center field to extend the Ursuline lead to 2-0.
 
Malone answered with three runs in the bottom of the second inning to take a 3-2 advantage.
 
Ursuline rallied once again to the tie game 3-3 in the fourth inning after Ashley Buttolph reached on a two out double and came around to score on an RBI single from Kat Ferretti.
 
Once again, the Pioneers had an answer with two runs in the bottom of the inning to reclaim the lead for good at 5-3. Malone tacked on two more in the fifth inning and a run in the sixth inning.
 
Game two saw the Malone offense benefit once again from the long ball. Bailey Byers started the game with a solo home run to left field in the first inning and followed it up with a grand slam in the second inning to stake Malone to a 5-0 lead. Betz homered in the second inning, a solo shot, to make it 6-0.
 
Ursuline started to chip away at the deficit in the third inning with a single from Savannah Hicks followed by a base hit from Fessler to put two runners on with no outs. After a sacrifice bunt by Tara Backherms, Gallagher delivered a double to right center to score both Hicks and Fessler to make it 6-2.
 
Malone added what would be a key run in the bottom of the fifth inning that pushed the lead to 7-2.
 
In the seventh inning, after two were out, Ursuline's offense rallied. Hicks started things off with a single back up the middle and Fessler reached on an error. Backherms drove in a run with a base hit through the left side to make it 7-3. Gallagher drove in another run with a single to center to score Jaqi Vallejo to make it 7-4. Rawlings drove in in the final two runs before Ursuline was retired to end the game.
 
Gallagher finished game two 2-for-4 from the plate and drove in three runs while Hicks, Fessler, and Backherms all had two hits each.
 
The Arrows will travel to Findlay on Tuesday for a doubleheader with the Oilers.