EUGENE, Ore. | Warner Pacific softball faced off against the Bushnell University Beacons in day one of a two-day series on Thursday afternoon. The Knights split opening day with the Beacons.
 
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The Rundown
The Knights took the opener from the home team with a strong performance on the mound from Melia Croydon. The freshman from Milwaukie, Oregon allowed just three hits and threw for four strikeouts in the match.
 
Warner Pacific found its offense in the second inning thanks to a RBI double from Emma Foster and an RBI single from Katie Gleasman. Right after the strong offensive performance, the Knight defense faced just three batters in the bottom of the second.
 
The hits kept coming for the Knights with Payton Hergert and Devinne Amesquita both finding contact in the third inning. Amesquita brought a runner in with a single up the middle.
 
The Knights scored two more runs in the fifth inning to make it a 5-1 game with yet another Amesquita single up the middle RBI as the Knights claimed game one.
 
 
Game two sang a different tune as it saw the likes of a strong Bushnell offensive performance; the team finished with 14 hits. Warner Pacific with 10 of their own as the Knights ultimately fell to the Beacons 8-6.
 
Bushnell jumped out to an early one-run lead for the first three innings before Payton Hergert perfectly placed a ball down the right-field line for the game-tying run. Just two batters later, Emma Foster doubled to left-field, bringing two runners across the plate.
 
Up 3-1 after three innings, the Knight defense gave up one fourth inning Bushnell run followed by a three-run fifth inning.
 
After a lead exchange and a two-run deficit, Warner Pacific's Emma Foster stepped to the plate, the first batter of the sixth inning, and sent a ball well beyond the boundary for her third homer of the season.
 
With two outs in the sixth, Katie Gleasman stepped to the plate for a strong-armed double, followed immediately by a Tatum Fell double, knotting the game up at six. For the third at-bat in a row, Warner Pacific batted in a run; Macy Besuyen found a hole up the middle to bring in the go-ahead run.
 
Closing out the sixth inning, Warner Pacific tallied three runs on four hits in the inning to take a 6-5 lead.
 
Ultimately unable to get it done on the defensive end, the Knights gave up four Beacon hits and three runs in the sixth inning as Bushnell closed out the game with a dominating offensive performance to take the last game of the day.
 

Deeper Look
Emma Foster notched her third homer of the year
Macy Besuyen and Payton Hergert lead the Knights in batting averages with .355
  

Flash Forward
The Knights and Beacons will close out the series with two games on Friday afternoon with 3 and 5pm first-pitches scheduled respectively.