YANKTON, S.D. – College of Saint Mary opened its Great Plains Athletic Conference softball season victoriously on Thursday, beating Mount Marty University 8-6 in the first game of their doubleheader before falling 9-2 in the nightcap.

"Really happy to open the GPAC season with a win,'' CSM Coach Carolyn Todd Bray said. "We were prepared offensively to start the game.''

Indeed, the Flames (4-12 overall, 1-1 GPAC) jumped out to a 6-0 lead through two innings. Shaylynn Campbell started things with a solo homer in the first inning, and then CSM added five more in the second. Kayla Reed had an RBI with a bases-loaded walk, Ella Watts followed with an RBI single, Campbell added a sacrifice fly for an RBI and Kynzee McFadden delivered a two-run single.

The Lancers (8-12, 1-1) chipped away, but a Maycee Hays RBI single in the fifth and a Victoria Placzek sacrifice fly in the seventh to drive in Adelia Dunlap helped the Flames keep the hosts at bay and pull out the win.

McFadden finished 4 for 4 with the two RBIs, earning praise from Bray, while Reed was 2 for 2 along with her run driven in. Campbell threw 4.2 innings to get the win, while McFadden earned the save with 2.1 scoreless innings of work.

"Kayla Reed had an excellent game in center field,'' Bray said. "We thought both of our pitchers threw well. Had a couple baserunning mistakes that we need to clean up.''

In the second game, Mount Marty beat its opponent to the punch, scoring multiple runs in three different innings aided by a 16-hit attack.

"We struggled to make adjustments at the plate,'' Bray said. "Waited too long to get our bats going. Also, did a bunch of little things wrong, like missed signs, wrong baserunning reads, errors on cuts and relays.''

Bray said positives from the game were Maria Perez's run-scoring double to plate McFadden from first and Makenna Earnest's sacrifice fly, which scored Dunlap.

CSM returns to action Saturday at the Sanford Sports Complex in Sioux Falls, S.D. with 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. GPAC games against Northwestern College.