Bentonville, Ark. - The Missouri S&T Lady Miner softball nine dropped a pair of games on Friday to open its 2016 season at Memorial Park in Bentonville, Ark. The Lady Miners dropped their season opener to Southern Nazarene 7-0 and dropped their second game of the morning to Northwestern Oklahoma State 9-1 in six innings.

Game 1 - Southern Nazarene 7 Lady Miners 0
Southern Nazarene (3-2) broke a scoreless tie with two outs in third inning. Logan Sundbye hit a ball back up the middle which Kyra Slemp (Roeland Park, Kan./Shawnee Mission East) flagged down but couldn't throw the runner out at first. Allie Baird was running all the way from second and Slemp's throw home was up the line and Baird slid around the tag of Kelly Heckemeyer (St. Elizabeth, Mo./St. Elizabeth).

The Crimson Storm added four more in the fourth on a two-run home run from Hannah LeBeau and then took advantage of an error allowing two more runs to score. The Storm added two more in the sixth for the final margin.

Rachel Aiardo (Naperville, Ill./Naperville North) picked up her first S&T (0-2) hit beating out an infield single in the third inning. Kati Viets (Sweet Springs, Mo./Sweet Springs) suffered the loss allowing five runs, three earned, on four hits in four innings of work. She struck out four and walked three in the contest.

Game 2 - Northwest Oklahoma 9 Lady Miners 1 six innings
In the second game of the day the Rangers (1-4) took advantage of some wildness in the first inning scoring a run on a wild pitch with the bases loaded. Courtney Jackson (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South) avoided further damage getting back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.

NWOSU added another run in the second on a solo home run to left off the bat of Megan Sanders. The Rangers added two more in the third on a single by Sanders scoring Caitlin Coody and a single by Taylor Watham that scored Lacey Hudson.

The Lady Miners got on the board in the top of the fourth. Carley Hamann (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln Way North) and Cailey Baker (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield) led off the inning with back-to-back singles. Heckemeyer narrowly missed a three-run homer as she was robbed at the left field fence. Hamman and Baker advanced on the play and then Hamman scored on a wild pitch to cut the lead to 4-1. S&T missed a chance to get closer but a pop out and a ground out ended the threat.

Northwestern Oklahoma added three more in the bottom half of the fourth on a three-run homer from Lacey Hudson to left field. The Rangers added one more in the fifth and ended the game in the sixth on Hudson's second home run of the game.

The Lady Miners were held to two hits in the contest. Jackson suffered the loss allowing seven runs on seven hits in 3.2 innings of work. She struck out three and walked six. Ashley Hill (Centralia, Mo./Centralia) went the final 1.1 giving up two runs on three hits with two walks and a strikeout.

S&T returns to action on Saturday taking on Missouri Western at 11 a.m. and Northwest Missouri at 3 p.m. at Memorial Park in Bentonville, Ark.