MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. – The Norfolk State softball team went down to the city of Charleston and fell to a pair of local opponents on Friday evening at Patriot's Point Sports Complex. Host College of Charleston earned an 8-3 win over the Spartans before Charleston Southern came away with a 6-2 victory.
 
On the first day of the Holy City Showdown, NSU (9-14) came up short as both opponents surged ahead in the third innings of their respective games.
 
In the first game of the day for NSU, Charleston (14-7) scored four runs in the third after NSU had taken the lead in the top half of the frame. An RBI single and a sac fly scored two runs, and Lexee Emanuel's two-run homer gave the Cougars a 6-3 lead.
 
Charleston pushed ahead in the second inning on a pair of RBI hits before the Spartans scored all three of their runs in the top of the third. Senior Jaylene Pryor and junior Hunter Halford singled with one out, and an error on Halford's base hit allowed Pryor to score. Junior Kylee Lopez then launched a two-run homer over the left center field fence, her sixth of the year, for a 3-2 lead.
 
It did not last, as Charleston scored those four runs in the bottom of the inning and then added single runs in the fourth and fifth.
 
Kylie Burke (2-1) got the win after pitching four innings and allowing three hits and three earned runs. NSU starter Skylar Swain (5-4) was tagged for eight earned runs on 10 hits.
 
Lopez finished 2-for-3. Emanuel batted 2-for-2 with two runs and three RBI for the Cougars.
 
Halford, meanwhile, went 2-for-4 in game 2 as she finished with three hits on the day.
 
Charleston Southern (16-8), however, struck first with a solo homer in the first off the bat of Jade Gandara. The Buccaneers pulled ahead ever further thanks to three runs in the third. Again, they all came thanks to Gandara, whose three-run homer to left field made it 4-0.
 
Aided in part on an error on CSU, the Spartans were able to score in the bottom of the third on senior Seana Moriarty's RBI single. Neither team then scored until the seventh, when the Buccaneers manufactured two more runs for a 6-1 lead.
 
Halford's solo homer in the bottom of the seventh completed the scoring.
 
Arizona Pilgrim (6-3) earned the win for Charleston Southern, pitching all seven innings and allowing five hits and two runs, one earned, with eight strikeouts. Senior Megan Przeslawski (0-2) gave up eight hits and six runs, five earned, in 6.1 innings of work for NSU.
 
Gandara, who now has 10 home runs on the year, went 3-for-3 with two runs and five RBI.
 
The Spartans will play two more games on Saturday and another on Sunday. On Saturday, NSU will take on Winthrop at 4:45 p.m. and then Furman at 7.