Everything clicked for the Fort Lewis College softball team in its first game against Colorado Mesa.

The second game was a little more slippery.

The Skyhawks won that first game 8-4 and lost the second 18-4 on Saturday at Aspen Field on the FLC campus.

Victoria Johnson pitched six innings and only allowed two earned runs in the Skyhawks’ victory.

“I was pleased with everything I saw in game one,” FLC head coach Kira Zeiter said. “We felt really good about it as a team.”

Chelsea Rodriguez paced the team with two hits and collected three runs batted in on a home run in the bottom of the second inning.

That put FLC (20-16, 16-10 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) up 5-1 after Kaitlyn Bending’s RBI single and Missy Fundora’s sacrifice fly earlier in the inning.

Colorado Mesa (16-14, 15-9 RMAC) hit a solo home run in the sixth and scored two runs in the seventh to reduce the deficit, but the Mavericks couldn’t entirely dig out of the hole.

They buried FLC in the second game, though.

Colorado Mesa had a 3-0 lead in the third inning before launching three home runs to push seven across the plate.

That ended Kiley Raica’s day in the circle. She took the loss for the Skyhawks.

Jeovanna Rios put all three FLC runs on the board in the fifth inning with her first collegiate home run.

“You can always take positives and focus on those,” Zeiter said. “I told the team tomorrow’s a new day.”

The split means that Mesa still leads FLC for the fourth spot in the RMAC standings. The teams will play two more Sunday at FLC. The first pitch of the doubleheader is set for 11 a.m.

“In this conference, everyone is so close right now in the standings, and all the teams are so tough,” Zeiter said.

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