NORFOLK, Va. – Saint Peter's scored two runs in the top of the seventh for an 8-6 win over the Norfolk State softball team, and then Delaware shut out the Spartans in a 3-0 victory on Saturday evening at the NSU Softball Field.
 
The second day of the Pirate Invitational came to a close with NSU first losing a late lead in the setback to Saint Peter's, followed by a five-hit performance against the Blue Hens. The losses dropped the Spartans to 5-11 overall on the season.
 
Kailey Christian struck out 10 in all seven innings to get the win for Delaware (17-4). The Spartans had compiled 12 hits in the first game, but Saint Peter's (1-8) benefitted from four NSU errors to pull out its first victory of the year.
 
Sophomore Gabby Vaughan and freshman Imani Moore each went 3-for-4 in that first game, as Moore scored twice and Vaughan drove in three runs.
 
But Saint Peter's got the best of NSU in the end. The Peacocks tied the game at 6-6 in the sixth after a runner on third scored on a wild pitch that occurred when the ball slip out of the hand of NSU freshman starter Alexis Robinson and went backwards. Then in the seventh, the Peacocks scored two more, the first on an RBI groundout and the second on a wild pitch. Both runs were unearned after the Spartans committed an error on a sac bunt earlier in the inning.
 
Still, NSU started the game off strong. Senior Shelby DesChamps walked to start the bottom of the first. She stole second, went to third on a bunt single by Moore, and scored when junior Jazzmaine Hammond dropped one into left field. Vaughan followed with another single into left, still with no outs, for a 2-0 lead.
 
Saint Peter's got a run back in the second, but the Spartans had an answer in the bottom of the frame. They loaded the bases with just one hit, and Moore blooped a high-arching single into shallow center to make it 3-1.
 
NSU, however, left the bases loaded, and the Peacocks tied it up in the third with a two-run shot off the bat of Anja Solveig Kane. In the fourth inning, Vaughan hit a bases-loaded single past the third base bag to score two runs and make it a 5-3 game.
 
Two errors on one play by the Spartans helped Saint Peter's eventually score two runs in the fifth to again tie it up. Freshman Morgan Johnson ended that stalemate pretty quickly when she blasted a solo homer to center in the bottom of the fifth for a 6-5 advantage. The lead, however, proved to again be short lived.
 
Robinson (2-2) suffered the loss after allowing 10 hits and eight runs, four earned, in seven innings of work.
 
Sydney Senerchia (1-2) struck out four and gave up five hits but just one earned run in 3.2 innings of relief for Saint Peter's. NSU stranded 10 runners.
 
Christian ran her record to 3-1 on the year for Delaware, who got four of its seven hits from the first two batters in the lineup. Brittney Mendoza was one of those two players, and she drove in all three runs for the Blue Hens.
 
A triple from Hanna Garber and a single off the bat of Mendoza in the first two at bats of the game gave Delaware the early 1-0 lead. Mendonza's two-run double into the left field corner made it 3-0 in the third.
 
But the Blue Hens only had two more hits over the last four innings. Sophomore Brooke Bond (0-2) pitched all seven innings for the Spartans, allowing seven hits and three runs, two earned.
 
The Spartans had chances to score. They had a runner thrown out at home in the fourth on a double by Moore, and freshman Morgan Hatcher was stranded after doubling in the fifth. She also singled in the seventh after Johnson had doubled to left field. But Christian induced a flyout to center to end the game and preserve the shutout.
 
The Spartans will look to salvage a game in the tournament when they play Drexel twice on Sunday beginning at noon to close things out.