NEWARK, Del. -- The Cornell softball team split a pair of games on day one of the 2018 Delaware Blue Hen Invitational, falling to Villanova 7-5 before rallying past the host school 2-1 in the afternoon. The Big Red moved to 5-6 on the year with the win in game two.

Game One
The Big Red spotted Delaware a 6-0 lead after four innings and rallied within a run, but the Wildcats hung on for a 7-5 victory on Saturday morning at UD Softball Stadium.

Megan Murray, Tori Togashi and Erin Rockstroh each had two hits with Togashin scoring twice.

Maddie Orcutt threw threee solid innings of relief, allowing one run and three hits with two strikeouts.

Trailing 6-0, the Big Red cut the lead in half with a three-run fifth thanks to a two-run throwing error and an RBI single by Murray. Two more scored in the sixth after loading the bases with nobody out, but Villanova scored one run in the top of the seventh and then held off the Big Red in the bottom half. Cornell put runners on first and third with one out, but Villanova turned a game-ending double play to put an end to the Big Red's rally.

Game Two
Cornell rallied for a pair of runs in the visitor half of the sixth inning to salvage a Saturday split with a 2-1 win over Delaware. Erin Rockstroh's go-ahead RBI single made a winner of Lisa Nelson, who scattered five hits while striking out seven in a complete game victory.

Madeline Avery and Olivia Lam were both 2-for-3 on the afternoon for the Big Red, with Avery plating the tying run to begin the comeback. Megan Murray was 1-for-3 with a walk as seven starters had at least one hit in the win.

Murray started the rally with a leadoff single. After Tori Togashi advanced her to second on a bunt, Avery doubled to center to knot the game. Two batters later, Rockstroh's single up the middle game the Big Red its first lead, and Nelson shut the door from there. THe sophomore didn't allow a baserunner in the final two frames after getting out of a bases loaded jam in the fifth.