Box Score DOVER, Del. – The University of Hartford softball team could not get its offense going, as it lost to the Delaware Hornets, 8-0, in five innings in the opening contest of the Hornet Invitational on Friday. Hartford (2-7) returns to the diamond for two games on Saturday as it will play Lehigh at 11 a.m. and Delaware State (8-4) at 3:30 p.m.

The Hawks got just two hits and four total base runners off of Delaware State's starting pitcher Vanessa Ciocatto, as Amber Andrews' single in the game's first at-bat and a Jackie Kelly base hit in the fourth were the only ones to connect against the Hornets' pitcher. Ciocatto finished with three strikeouts.

Delaware State jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first inning, and took a 3-0 advantage in the following frame following a Rochelle Sablay RBI single. In the third inning, the Hornets pushed their lead to 5-0 before extending that edge to 8-0 after five frames to score the mercy-rule win.

Freshman Lexi Wilkerson suffered the loss for the Hawks after allowing five earned runs on eight hits through the first 2.1 innings. She recorded a pair of strikeouts. In relief, senior Zuzana Kudernatschova recorded 2.1 innings of work and struck out two batters while allowing three runs on seven hits.