HOWELL, Mich. --- On the verge of dropping a pair of 4-3 contests to Cleary University (Mich.) Friday afternoon, Madisen Tucker (JR/St. John, Ind.) saved the day for the University of St. Francis softball team as her two-out, two-run double in the top of the seventh inning rallied the Saints to a 5-4 second-game victory.
 

The win also enabled Tucker to remain undefeated in the circle, picking up her fourth victory of the season.
 

Tucker and third baseman Danielle Callahan (JR/New Lenox, Ill.) supplied the majority of the offense for USF on the day with each player delivering three hits and driving in three runs.
 

Game 1 --- Cleary 4, USF 3

All the scoring in the opener came in the first three innings for both teams before things settled down. Over the final four frames, St. Francis was the only team to get a runner as far as second base.
 

Things started off well for the Saints as they picked up back-to-back run-scoring doubles from first baseman Kayla Garcia (GR/Chicago, Ill.) and Tucker in the first inning.  Garcia was the only Saint to collect a pair of hits for USF in Game 1. 
 

A pair of costly mistakes, however, did St. Francis in in the end. A wild pitch set up Cleary's first run on a sacrifice fly in the first inning, while its last tally came across the plate on a two-out error in a two-run third inning.
 

USF was also the benefactor of a Cleary error that pushed across the Saints third run of the contest to break a 2-2 tie in the top of the third inning.
 

Hannah Vachon (JR/Oxford, Mich.) (1-1) suffered the first-game loss for the Saints.
 

Game 2 --- USF 5, Cleary 4

A one-out double by center fielder Carlie Benes (JR/Valparaiso, Ind.) and an intentional walk to Garcia two batters later set up Tucker's heroics. 
 

Callahan accounted for USF's other three runs. She made Cleary pay for errors in both the third and fifth innings with a two-run double in the third inning and a run-scoring single with two outs in the fifth inning.
 

One-half inning prior to USF's rally, Cleary put together its own two-run comeback with three of its first four batters of the inning collecting hits.
 

The Cougars also opened the seventh inning with a base hit, but Bridget McDermott (SO/Palos Heights, Ill.) came on in relief of Tucker to retire each of the three batters she faced to earn her second save of the season.
 

The Saints are off until Wednesday (March 24) when they head to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to face Mount Mercy University in a non-conference doubleheader beginning at 4 pm.