FORT MYERS, Fla. - Senior Whitney West continued her red-hot start to the 2016 season, recording four hits over two games including a double and a triple. But the LIU Brooklyn softball team dropped a pair of contests to open up the Florida Gulf Coast/Four Points Softball Invitational on Friday. The Blackbirds lost to Southern Illinois, 9-0, then fell 10-2 to Marshall in the second contest of the day.

Against the Salukis, the game was scoreless into the second inning before a pair of miscues by LIU Brooklyn opened the floodgates for SIU. With the bases loaded and one out, a single up the middle scored the first run of the contest and an error on the play by the Blackbirds allowed another Saluki to cross home plate and put the score at 2-0. Two batters later, another error on LIU allowed the fourth run of what would become a seven-run inning to score.

West did her best to jumpstart the Blackbirds offensively, recording three hits including a one-out triple in the bottom of the third. LIU could not push her home, however, as the game moved to the fourth. Junior Shelley Procter entered in relief of Sobieski and did a nice job, allowing just one hit over the next three innings to keep the Salukis off the board. In the seventh, a two-run home run from SIU's Sydney Jones accounted for the last scoring play of the game and the final 9-0 margin.

In the second game of the day, the Blackbirds fell behind early again and it was another error that helped the opposition gain momentum. With a runner on and one out, an error allowed a second Marshall player to reach base. Three consecutive singles from there allowed the Thundering Herd to score three runs and take a 3-0 lead, before sophomore Victoria Zamora ended the inning by throwing out a baserunner attempting to steal second.

LIU Brooklyn finally got on the board in the top of the third, as West doubled and came around to score on a single to center by Zamora. The Orange, Calif. product advanced to second on the throw, then stole third base but was left on base to end the inning.

After freshman Tallie Woodson worked around a leadoff single, sophomore Angie Vazquez led off the fourth with a solo home run to halve LIU's deficit at 3-2. The home run was the first of the season for Vazquez and the first for the Blackbirds as a team. Junior Kylie Mulholland followed with her second hit of the game, but a pitching change was made and Jordan Dixon retired three straight to close the frame.

The margin remained one until the fifth, when Marshall scored six times to essentially put the game out of reach. One more tally in the bottom of the sixth put the margin at 10-2 and enforced the eight-run rule.

LIU returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 20, with a rematch against Marshall at 5:00 p.m. The Blackbirds are also scheduled to face Saint Louis immediately following the game against the Thundering Herd.