TUCSON, Ariz. - Collecting only 11 hits and two runs total in two games, the George Fox University Bruins dropped a 4-0 decision to the North Central College (Ill.) Cardinals and a 3-2 heartbreaker to the Calvin College Knights on their final day of play in the Tucson Invitational Softball Games Tuesday here at Lincoln Park. 

In the first game, Holly Roadruck scattered seven hits and stranded nine baserunners in blanking the Bruins, with three strikeouts and two walks.  Taylor Whitmore (2-8) started and took the loss for the Bruins, allowing seven hits in 5.0 innings with one strikeout and three walks.  Erin Lee allowed four hits and a run in the final two frames.

North Central broke a scoreless tie in the 3rd when Erin Drennan scored on a bases-loaded fielder's choice grounder by Ashley Barry.  The Cardinals added two more in the 4th as Drennan doubled in Laura Constantine and then scored on an error at second.  Their final run came in the 6th on an RBI single by Katie Pappa to score Mary Caron.

Shelby Klein and Amy Peterson had two hits apiece for the Bruins.  Drennan, Pappa, and Roadruck had two safeties each for the Cardinals, who improved to 4-2 on the season.

In the second game, the Knight's Shelby Mast out-dueled Lee (5-5).  Each pitcher allowed only four hits and walked only one, while Mast had eight strikeouts and Lee three.  Lee, however, fell victim to three George Fox errors that made all three runs she allowed unearned.

Calvin took a 2-0 lead in the 1st on an RBI double by Mallissa VanRooyen and a run-scoring single by Aubree Thompson, both with two out.  George Fox tied it in the 2nd when Bethany Chriss walked and Klein lined her second home run of the season.  

The Knights scored the winning run in the 5th as Whisper Miller led off with a walk, went all the way to third on Kim Vander Akker's sacrifice bunt, and scored on a wild pickoff attempt by catcher Klein.  The Bruins had an opportunity to tie it in the 6th when Kerrianne Davidson, who was the only player in the game with two hits, led off with a single and advanced to second on an error in left, but Mast got out of the jam with two fly outs and a ground out before working a 1-2-3 7th.

George Fox finished with a 3-3 record in the tournament in Arizona and is now 7-13 overall.  Calvin moved to 2-0 with the victory.

The Bruins return to Northwest Conference action this weekend, hosting Whitworth University in a four-game set, with 12:00 noon doubleheaders on both Saturday and Sunday.