The Dominican University softball team shook off yesterday's 6-5 loss to Pitt-Bradford, claiming a pair of wins on Friday afternoon in Naples, Florida, topping Northland College 13-1 in five innings before knocking off Salem State 4-1.  The wins move the Stars to 7-3 on the season with just two games remaining on Dominican's annual spring trip to the Gene Cusic Classic.
 
Game One:  Dominican 13, Northland College 1 (5 Inn.)
 
The Stars plated five runs in the first and four more in the second to stake Anissa Becker (Sugar Grove, Ill.), making her first collegiate start, to a 9-0 lead after the top of the second and the Stars never looked back.  The lone run the Lumberjills managed was a solo home run by Erin Gilligan.
 
Dominican pounded out 13 hits in the winning effort, including a solo home run by Kaitlyn Tripp (Imperial, Mo.), her first of the season.  The Stars' Ali Woitovich (Downers Grove, Ill.) and Mackenzie Powell (Oak Park, Ill.) picked up two hits apiece, going a combined 4-for-4 out the Stars' cleanup spot in the order with three runs scored and one run batted in.  Tripp finished the game 2-for-4 with two RBI while freshman Sydney Kuderna (Naperville, Ill.) lined a two-run triple in her only at-bat of the game.
 
In the circle, Becker allowed just the one run over three innings, scattering two hits while striking out three before giving way to Olivia Babusci (Park Ridge, Ill.) who worked two scoreless frames.
 
Game Two: Dominican 4, Salem State 1
 
Dominican's Haley Locher (Lisle, Ill.) dominated the Salem State University Vikings in game two, allowing just one run on four hits and three walks while striking out six in the complete-game effort.  In picking up the win, Locher moves to 3-1 on the season and lowered her season earned run average to 2.14.
 
Catherine Conte (Elmwood Park, Ill.) picked up what proved to be the game-winning hit in the third inning, delivering a two-out single to right-center, scoring Alyssa Domico (Naperville, Ill.) and Woitovich.
 
An inning later, Dominican added a run on Abby Maike's (Savanna, Ill.) one out single that scored Tripp who reached base on an error to start the inning.  Tripp then drove in a run in the fifth when she bounced a single up the middle with a pair of runners on to push across Domico.
 
Salem State finally broke through on Locher in the bottom of the fifth when Shanna Zerambay led of the inning with a single.  Dahlia Cologiero followed with a triple to center but was gunned down at the plate trying to leg out an inside the park home run when the Stars' Lindsey Dudek (Posen, Ill.) flipped over the wall in center.
 
Locher pitched around a one-out walk in the sixth and then stranded runners at second and third when she got Desiree Moreno looking at strike three.
 
Dominican returns to the diamond on Saturday morning, taking on the UW-Superior Yellowjackets at 9:00 a.m. ET at CenturyLink Park and then rounds out the trip with an 11:00 a.m. ET first pitch against the Nichols College Bison.