Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 The Dominican University softball team ended up on both ends of one-run ballgames on Tuesday, falling 9-8 in eight innings to the Newbury College before edging Worcester Polytechnic Institute 7-6.
 
Jessica Wood (West Chicago, Ill.) continues to terrorize opposing pitching in Fort Myers, going 4-for-8 with five runs batted in and three runs scored in Tuesday’s split.  In the loss to Newbury, Wood gave the Stars a 2-0 lead with a two-out, two-run single to right.  Then in the last of the seventh and the Stars trailing by two, Wood laced a one-out single to send the game to extra innings.
 
Newbury scored two runs in the top of the eighth, and then Melissa Summaria (Algonquin, Ill.) bounced into a fielder’s choice with one out to draw the Stars within a run, but Dominican left runners at the corners.  The Stars stranded eight runners in the ballgame, two each in the bottom of the sixth, seventh and eighth.
 
Sara Slouber (Willow Springs, Ill.) was tagged with the loss, working four-plus innings out of the Stars’ bullpen.  Slouber was charged with five runs, three earned, on seven hits and two walks while striking out two.
 
Kaitlin Barajas (Dyer, Ind.), Emily Mahoney (Crystal Lake, Ill.) and Wood, the Stars’ three, four and five hitters, knocked out two hits apiece, going a combined 6-for-12 with a walk.
 
In the win over WPI, Dominican and Mahoney, who got the start in the circle, carried a 7-3 lead into the top of the seventh before the Engineers pushed across three runs but then got the tying run thrown out at second trying to take second after singling to right.
 
Wood provided what proved to be the winning run, scoring Mahoney from second on a single to right.  Wood and Mahoney picked up two hits apiece in the winning effort and scored five of the Stars’ seven runs.
 
In the circle, Mahoney improved to 3-2 on the season, allowing six runs on eight hits and seven walks while striking out nine.
 
Dominican, now 4-2 on the spring trip to Fort Myers, will enjoy a day off on Wednesday before returning to the diamond Thursday at 9:00 a.m. ET.  The Stars will take on Wittenberg University and Wilmington College of Ohio.