NAPLES, Fla. - The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford softball team split a pair of games on Wednesday afternoon at North Collier Regional Park.

The Panthers opened the day with a tough, 12-1 loss in six innings to Marian University, but then capped off the day with an impressive 7-3 victory over Elms College.

Amber Fox and Natalie Harding led the Panthers to the victory in game two, collecting three hits each and driving in five of Pitt-Bradford's seven runs while Maddy Hillery drove in a run as well. Defensively the Panthers turned a 6-5-3 triple play in the second game.

Cassidy Lewis had another terrific day in the circle. The sophomore pitcher improved to 2-0 after allowing just two earned runs on seven hits while striking out four over seven innings of work.

"We had some struggles today, but I am happy with the way that we came back in the second game this early in the season," said Pitt-Bradford head coach Tina Phillips. "We had a few defensive breakdowns, but the triple play gave us a lot of momentum."

Hillery drove in the first run of the game with a sacrifice fly to centerfield in the bottom of the first.

Elms struck back with two runs of their own to take a 2-1 lead in the second.

The Pitt-Bradford offense came alive in the fourth, exploding for four runs. Harding singled right back up the middle and Fox followed with a three-run triple to give the Panthers and 5-2 lead after four.

Elms got one back in the sixth, but Pitt-Bradford erased any hopes of an Elms comeback with a two-run sixth. Harding drove in the first run and then scored on an error later in the inning.

Marian proved to be too tough for the Panthers in the first game of the day, winning 12-1 in six innings.

Emily Fair and Fox had the Panther's only two hits in the loss.

Tana Vanden Heuvel drove in three runs to pace the high-powered Sabre offense to a victory.

The Panthers return to action Thursday morning at nine against Olivet and then play Dominican at 11.