CLERMONT, Fla. – The Macalester College softball team opened play at THE Spring Games with a 5-3 loss to Olivet and a 7-1 victory over Smith College Sunday morning at Hancock Park. The games are the first of 10 games in Florida for the Scots, who are now 5-1 on the season.

Against Olivet, Macalester erased a 1-0 deficit with two runs in the bottom of the third. With runners on second and third, a grounder by junior G.G. Gunther (San Francisco, Calif./Lowell) plated sophomore Sophie Migacz (McHenry, Ill./McHenry West) and moved first year Julia Carpenter (Stevensville, Mich./Lakeshore) to third. Carpenter came home on a wild pitch for a 2-1 lead. Olivet regained the lead with three runs in the top of the fourth. In the fifth, Migacz came home on a grounder by junior Natalie Platt (Boulder, Colo./Boulder) to make the score 4-3. But the Scots were unable to score again, and Olivet added an insurance run in the sixth to close out the win.

Carpenter was 3-for-4 with a run at the plate, while senior Nikki Caicedo (Clinton Twp., Mich./Chippewa Valley) had two hits. Migacz pitched all seven innings, allowing five runs, two earned, on five hits while striking out five and walking five.

In the win over Smith, Caicedo put the Scots ahead with a solo home run in the top of the first inning. Smith tied the game in the bottom of the first, then took a 2-1 lead with another run in the second. In the top of the fourth, junior Morghan Bean (Muscatine, Iowa/Muscatine) led off with a double and later scored on a single by Platt. With Platt on third, first year Kai Perket (San Diego, Calif./Francis W. Parker School) delivered a two-out single to score Platt and give Macalester a 3-2 lead. Bean singled home Gunther in the fifth, and Caicedo and Platt drove in runs in a three-run seventh inning.

Migacz went the distance in the circle again, limiting Smith to two runs, one earned, on six hits over seven innings to improve to 4-1 on the season. Carpenter notched three hits for the second straight game, while Bean had two hits.

The Scots continue play at THE Spring Games on Monday, Mar. 13 with games against Millikin at 8:00 a.m. Eastern and Ripon at 10:30 a.m. Eastern.