WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – The Otterbein University Softball team continued play in The Spring Games Tuesday afternoon, officially passing the halfway point of the spring trip with competitive losses against No. 2 Trine and UMass Dartmouth.
 
Despite the Florida heat, the Cardinals struggled to warm the bats up in both games en route to falling by scores of 5-1 and 4-0, respectively.
 
Otterbein's first game of the day came against a challenging opponent in Trine, which fell just short of a national championship in the 2022 season against Christopher Newport in the title series. The Thunder now boast an 8-0 record this year in the early going…
 
The Cardinals fell behind early after committing an error in the field, granting Trine an early 1-0 lead. The Thunder also scored another run in the third inning and held Otterbein to one single runner on base through three full.
 
A three-run home run in the fifth inning pushed Trine ahead with just a few more at-bats for the Cardinals to turn things around. A sacrifice fly from Sage Jenkins in the bottom of the sixth brought in Caitlin Wilkins to put the Cardinals on the board. The Cardinals then had an opportunity for a two-out rally with the bases loaded, but couldn't manage to punch any runners in.
 
Trine finished with seven hits, five runs and zero errors. Otterbein produced just three hits, one run, and three errors in total.
 
Kiley King made her college debut in the circle for the Cards, tossing 2.2 scoreless innings of relief.
 
Otterbein quickly took the field again for the afternoon finale, this time squaring off against UMass Dartmouth (4-2). The Corsairs had already faced two OAC schools this spring, taking down Marietta and falling short against Heidelberg.
 
Play remained even for two innings with both teams leaving potential scorers on base. UMD eventually drove the first run in during the bottom of the third off a single to right field. The Corsairs widened the lead with a three-run, four-hit effort during the fourth inning, and held Otterbein to one singular hit for the remainder of the game. 
 
Another freshman continued showing nice promise for Otterbein, as Jen Sindeldecker hit 2 for 3 from the designated player spot.
 
The Cardinals will look to recuperate Wednesday during their day off, and will take the field again Thursday and Friday to finish their final four games of their spring break trip.