CAPE CORAL, Fla. – Sophomore Kailey Smith singled in senior Mikala Wendt in the top of the seventh inning to send the MSOE softball team to a 5-4 victory over Wartburg Wednesday morning in the first of two games in Florida.

The Raiders (2-2) opened the day with a win over the Knights (2-5), but fell in the day's second game against Newbury (2-3) 5-1.

In the Wartburg game, the teams traded four-run innings to send the game to the seventh tied at 4-4. Wendt led off the frame with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Smith then laced a single to right field to send Wendt home with the winning run.

The Knights put themselves in position to tie, loading the bases with just one out in the bottom half of the inning. Sophomore Shannon Curtis then induced a ground ball to third base, allowing junior Beth Young to start a 5-2-3 game-ending double play.

MSOE struck first in the game, putting its first five batters of the third inning on base. Junior Katie Ready had an RBI single and freshman Laryn Brinkman drove in two runs with a double. Junior Lauren Boyle drive in the last run with a run-scoring ground out.

Wartburg responded with four runs in its half of the fifth inning.

Curtis (2-2) threw 2.1 innings in relief to get the win. She also got the start in game two, throwing a complete game and striking out six. She allowed just one earned run to the Nighthawks, who capitalized on two Raider errors to push across four unearned scores.

Young staked MSOE to a 1-0 lead with a home run in the bottom of the second inning. Unfortunately, that was all the offense the Red & White could muster, as Olivia Kenyon scatted six hits over seven innings for Newbury.

The Nighthawks erased the Raiders' lead with a single run in the third and added another in the fourth. The designated visitors then struck for two more runs in the sixth inning and another in the seventh.

After splitting each of the first two days, MSOE returns to the field Thursday against Mount St. Mary and Kenyon.