WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – Ohio Dominican's softball team suffered two extra inning losses dropping their first contest 5-3 to Concordia-St.Paul and 4-3 to Indiana University of Pennsylvania Friday evening in Winter Haven.

In the first game, both teams were scoreless through the first four innings with sophomore Sydney Long (Ashland, Ohio) and Aryka Knoche going head-to-head in the circle. Through the first four innings, Long had allowed just three hits while the Panthers had four off Knoche.

The Bears were the first ones to break through in the fifth with a single that scored a runner from second to go up 1-0. After a scoreless bottom half for the Panthers, a solo home run for the Bears doubled their lead at 2-0.

The Panthers finally broke through with two outs in the bottom half of the seventh to tie the game. ODU took advantage of new life as Landry Slider (Stow, Ohio) reached on an error by the shortstop with two outs. Taylor Farmer (Mt. Blanchard, Ohio) then tied the game up, homering to centerfield to send the game into extra innings.

The Bears would score three times in the eighth inning to take a 5-2 advantage heading to the bottom half. The Panthers started a rally as Kyla Payne (Columbus, Ohio) was placed on second via the international tiebreaker rule and would come around to score on a Raemon Meents (Downers Grove, Ill.) single to right field making the score 5-3. However, the rally would be cut short with a pair of outs and the Panther leaving a runner on third.

Sophomore Carson Hackerd (Frankfort, Ind.) led the way for the Panther offense going 3-for-5 at the plate while freshman Braxton Downs (Prospect, Ky.) was 2-for-4 at the plate.

Long took the loss in the circle throwing a complete game giving up five runs, four earned on 11 hits with eight strikeouts and one walk.

As of the time of this writing, no box score is available for the second game against IUP.

The Panthers fall to 4-10 overall and will be back in action tomorrow morning playing Quincy at 9 a.m. and Slippery Rock at 1:45 p.m.