By Kayla Berns, Staff Writer

Single runs in the fifth and sixth innings were just enough to let Rollins University slip past the Armstrong Pirates softball team Feb. 22 for a 4-3 loss at Pirate Field.

Rollins wasted no time getting on the board in the bottom of the first, putting Armstrong in an early hole.

Armstrong fought back in the third inning when senior shortstop Alexis Mercer’s sacrifice fly and junior 3rd baseman Ashley Sterritt’s two-run homer drove the Pirates to a 3-2 lead.

“I was nervous, two outs, of course a batter feels some sort of pressure upon themselves,” Sterritt said, “I saw a pitch that I thought I could get ahold of and swung like coach taught me. Thankfully I got ahold of it.”

Unfortunately that would be all the offense the Pirates would muster. Rollins got timely hits in both the fifth and sixth innings and scored one run in each to eventually take a 4-3 lead that would become the final.

Sterritt said, “As a team we wanted to have strong defense because we know Rollins is a good hitting team and unfortunately Rollins had the key hits when they needed them.”

Junior Peyton Roth and freshman Autumn Parrish added singles and Senior Rachel Reynolds smacked a double in the tough offensive day for the Pirates in which they mustered only five hits.

Sophomore Jane Trzaska gave up seven hits and struck out four and suffered the loss on the mound pulling her record to 4-3 on the season.

Armstrong (7-6) will retake the field against Carson-Newman in Spartanburg, S.C  at 6 p.m. in the 2015 Mid-South Classic.