ST. GEORGE, Utah -- February 8, 2018 -- The Chadron State College softball team lost its first two of five games at the Dixie State Easton Classic, in St. George on Thursday. The Eagles lost their tourney opener 1-0, to Montana State University Billings, in a pitchers' dual, and the second game 7-3 to Northwest Nazarene University.

Sophomore pitcher Jessica Jarecki struck out 10 and pitched a complete game with just two walks allowed, but the Eagles succumbed to an unfortunate series in the bottom of the fourth inning, involving a couple of overthrows. The result was the winning run for the Yellow Jackets.

Only Kayla Michel, in the first, and Julia Elbert, in the fifth, mustered base hits for Chadron State. In the latter case, CSC had two on base with no outs, after a fielding error gave Angelica Maples safety at first with Elbert at second. That would be the closest the Eagles came to scoring, as the next three CSC batters in a row struck out.

The winning pitcher, Megan Dettling, set a new Great Northwest Athletic Conference single-game record with 18 strikeouts.

In the second game of the day, Northwest Nazarene took control early, with most of its offense scoring in the top of the first inning. The Nighthawks walked, singled twice, and homered in the first to generate four runs. They then doubled and homered again in the second before CSC's Dallas Magnusson came in to quiet things down.

The Eagles came up with their first run when Ellie Owens scored in the fifth. When Owens homered to lead off the seventh, CSC had some momentum. Leilani Niccum, Kendyl Moody, and Kayla Michel each singled to produce a third run for Chadron State, but couldn't make up the entire deficit.

Sophomore Megan Horn took the loss for the Eagles to fall to 1-1 on the year. Chadron State went to 2-5 in non-conference play.

Dominican University and California Baptist University are on the docket for CSC on Friday, starting at 10 a.m.