PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Senior Cayla Tulley (Corona, Calif.) and junior Morgan Fisher (Glassboro, N.J.) each registered two hits and two RBI, as the UMass Lowell softball team (8-11-1) dropped a pair of games on day two of the Rutgers Tournament.
 
The River Hawks first fell, 8-5, against Iona before coming up just short of completing a comeback in a 6-4 decision against Saint Peter's.
 
Graduate student Tori Mueller (Clovis, Calif.), sophomore Emily Tow (North Kingstown, R.I.) and senior Brenna Davenport (Merrimack, N.H.) also logged one hit in each outing on Saturday, while graduate student Mya Case (Syacuse, N.Y.) totaled a team-best three RBI.
 
In the circle for the River Hawks, graduate student Kaylie See (Chino, Calif.) came out of the bullpen for 1.2 innings against Iona to take the decision with one strikeout and two earned runs. Sophomore Jen Slanovec (Bethlehem, Pa.) went 6.2 innings against the Peacocks with three strikeouts.
 
Iona jumped out to an early, 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first in game one on a two-run home run by Jessica Chilcott. Fisher and freshman Katelyn Fitzgerald (Ambler, Pa.) each tallied a hit for the River Hawks in the second, but the Gaels stretched the margin to five with three hits and two sacrifice flies in the home half of the inning.
 
The River Hawk bats got hot in the third, though, as Davenport and junior Elizabeth Frederick (Sunapee, N.H.) led off with back-to-back singles through the left side, and Case followed with a three-run shot over the wall in left center to make it 5-3.
 
In the fourth, another River Hawk long ball erased the difference. This time, senior Darlene Gutierrez (Colton, Calif.) went yard to score herself and Tow, who had gotten things started with a single up the middle.
 
The 5-5 stalemate was short-lived, however, because the Gaels were able to plate three more in their next trip to the dish to pull back in front, 8-5. And although both teams ended the day with nine hits, the River Hawks were not able to make any noise in their final chances of the outing.
 
The Saint Peter's and UMass Lowell defenses controlled the early innings of game two. Each side allowed only one baserunner in three scoreless innings until the Peacocks plated a pair of runs in the fourth.
 
However, Slanovec allowed just one Saint Peter's hit in their next two at-bats to set up a late River Hawk comeback. Davenport started the home half of the sixth with a base hit to right before Tulley stepped in drove a ball deep out of the park to knot things up at 2-2. History then repeated itself with a Mueller single and a Fisher home run to give UMass Lowell a 6-4 edge heading to the final inning.
 
The Peacocks would rather for four runs in the seventh, though, to stave off the River Hawks, 6-4.
 
UMass Lowell will close out the weekend tomorrow, Sunday, March 19, against tournament host Rutgers at 1:30 p.m.