The Dominican University softball team made their 2016 debut on Sunday afternoon in Fort Myers, Florida, at the Gene Cusic Classic, topping the Clark University Cougars 9-3 before hanging on for a 7-5 win over the Kenyon College Ladies in game two.
 
Freshman Gabi Alfaro (Aurora, Ill.) made quite the impression in her first collegiate game, going 3-for-5 with a solo home run and three runs batted in while senior right-hander Haley Locher (Lisle, Ill.) picked up the wins in both ends of the Stars' pair of games.
 
Dominican, now 2-0, returns to the diamonds tomorrow morning, taking on Wilmington College at 9:00 a.m. before taking on Geneva College at 3:00 p.m.
 
Game One: Dominican 9, Clark 3
 
Trailing 1-0 in the top of the third, Alfaro blasted a solo home run with two outs to knot the game at 1-1.
 
The Stars then broke the game open in the top of the fifth, pushing across seven runs on four hits and an error.  With two across already in the inning, Alfaro ended the day for Clark's starting pitcher, Sami West, lining a two run double to the gap in right-center to plate Armani Procter (Chicago, Ill.) and Lindsey Dudek (Posen, Ill.).  Dominican's Marissa Burns (Shorewood, Ill.) then laid down the squeeze bunt after Alfaro took third on a wild pitch.  Burns later stole home and Dominican capped the inning with a sacrifice fly by Ali Woitovich (Downers Grove, Ill.) that pushed across Kaitlyn Tripp (Imperial, Mo.).
 
Cristina Lukas, the Stars' head coach, then turned the game over to the bullpen with freshmen Sydney Kuderna (Naperville, Ill.) and Anissa Becker (Sugar Grove, Ill.) working the final three innings to seal the victory for Dominican after Locher surrendered just one run on four hits and a walk while striking out three through the first four innings.
 
Offensively, the Stars pounded out nine hits with Alfaro and Tripp logging three and two hits respectively.  Alfaro finished her freshman debut 3-for-4 with a double and a home run and three runs batted in.  Tripp went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles and two runs scored.
 
Game Two: Dominican 7, Kenyon 5
 
In their second game of the day, Dominican opened a 6-0 lead after Procter lined a three-run homer to left in the top of the third to cap a six-run inning for the Stars.
 
Kenyon got two runs back off Locher in the bottom of the third when Britny Patterson roped a two-run home run.
 
In the top of the fifth, Dominican took advantage of an error by the Ladies when Alfaro singled to right with the bases loaded to score Procter.  In the bottom of the inning, it was Kenyon's turn to capitalize on a Dominican miscue, pushing across a pair of unearned runs.
 
Kenyon continued to chip away at the Dominican lead, pulling within 7-5 in the bottom of the sixth when Patterson plated Lindsey Susolik with a sac fly with the bases loaded.  After a two-out walk, Locher escaped further damage, inducing a pop out to Alfaro at shortstop to end the threat.
 
In the seventh, Locher worked around a leadoff single to pick up her second win of the day.  Locher surrendered seven hits and five walks while striking out one in the complete-game effort.  The Lisle native was charged with all five of the Ladies' runs, three of them earned.
 
Procter went 3-for-4 at the plate with three runs batted in while Alyssa Domico (Naperville, Ill.) added a pair of hits, picking up two RBI.