(Game 1 Box) (Game 2 Box) 

            FORT MYERS, Fla. - Freshman Ali Keith ( Northfield, N.H./Winnisquam) tossed a two-hit shutout over Saint Lawrence University Friday morning, leading the Plymouth State University softball team to the first of two victories on the final day of the Florida trip for the Gene Cusic Classic.

            Keith did not walk a batter while striking out eight in the six-inning affair as PSU blanked St. Lawrence, 8-0.  The Panthers came back in the second game with seven runs and 13 hits in a 7-2 victory over SUNY New Paltz.  PSU completes its Florida trip with a 7-3 overall record.

            Sophomores Kortney Nedeau (Kennebunk, Maine) and Melissa Caiazzo (Portland, Maine) provided the offensive punch in the first-game victory, each going 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI. That was all the offense Keith needed to post her first career shutout.

            The Panther bats continued their hot hitting in the second-game victory over New Paltz.  PSU scored all the runs they would need in the second inning, pushing four runs across the plate, and put the game away with two more runs in the fifth and one in the sixth. Nedeau, Caiazzo and junior Sammi Romano (Kingston, N.H./Sanborn Regional) each had three hits, with Caiazzo and Romano cracking doubles.  Senior Heather Bartolo (Derry, N.H./Pinkerton) highlighted the four-run second inning with a two-run double.

            Senior Courtney MacFarland (Hampstead, N.H./Pinkerton) picked up the win for PSU, improving her record to 3-2. She allowed just five hits and one earned run while striking out five.

            PSU returns to New England on Saturday, Mar. 21, and the next games are in a doubleheader in the Little East Conference debut at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth on Saturday, Mar. 28. 

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