LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Rachel Sieber and Courtney Hankins each collected a pair of hits this afternoon but the Fairfield University softball team came up on the short end in a pair of games at the Loyola Marymount Tournament. The Stags dropped a 9-1 decision to #22 Long Beach State University and a 10-2 game to the host school. 

The nationally-ranked 49ers put a single run on the board in three of the first four innings to secure a 3-0 lead. Long Beach State took control of the game in its fifth at-bat of the game when the first five batters reached base including four base hits. With four hits and a walk, the 49ers sent home three runs before the Stags could record an out. A two-run single with one out ended the rally and put the team ahead by an 8-0 count.

Fairfield scored its only run of the game in its half of the fifth inning as pinch hitter Sam Merino started things off with a single. A wild pitch and a ground out allowed Merino to continue to third base. The freshman trotted home when Amanda Ulzheimer laced a single to put Fairfield on the scoreboard. Long Beach State finished the game in the top of the sixth inning when it plated a run off an RBI double that ended the game with the 49ers on top, 9-1. Mikayla Rubin also had a hit for the Stags to give the team four hits in the game.

The second contest started with Loyola Marymount registering a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning courtesy of a two-run homer from Alicia Brown. Fairfield came right back in the top of the second and cut the lead in half with a run. Merino walked with one out and was sent over to second following a ground out to the right side of the infield. Sieber stepped to the plate and ripped a triple that put the Stags on the board with their first run.

Loyola Marymount turned six hits into six runs in the bottom of the third inning, starting the inning with three straight doubles and adding a two-run homer from their fourth batter of the frame which comprised four of those runs. Fairfield fought back with a run in the top of the fourth inning as Lacey Olaff and Drew Westford combined for a pair of singles with the latter driving in the former to make the score 8-2. The Lions closed out the game with two runs in the fourth inning that brought the score to the final margin, 10-2.

Fairfield finishes up its West Coast tour with one more game on Sunday as the Stags play North Dakota State at 11 am (ET) before returning to campus.