CAPE CORAL, Fla. -- The Bridgewater State University softball team split a pair of games on Thursday at the Gene Cusick Collegiate Classic in Cape Coral, Florida.  The Bears posted a 9-2 win over Medaille College, and dropped a 6-5 decision to Drew University in eight innings.

Amber White (Middleboro, Mass.) picked up the complete game victory in the 9-2 win over Medaille.  White (2-2) gave up two runs on seven hits while fanning five.

The Bears, who banged out 13 hits in the win, scored four times in the first and never looked back.  Bridgewater led 9-0 after 4 1/2 innings of play before Medaille got on the board on a two-run double by Katie Gibbins.

Jill Welch (Hubbardston, Mass.) paced the BSU offense as she was 4-for-4 at the plate with two runs and two RBI.  Emily Whitney (Norwood, Mass.)  went 3-for-3 with her first collegiate home run, a solo shot in the fourth.

Brianna Strecker (Waterford, Conn.) and Jennifer Shaw (Brockton, Mass.) added two hits apiece for the Bears.

The Bears fell behind 4-2 through five innings of play in the setback to Drew, but rallied for single runs in the sixth and seventh to send the game into extra innings.

Strecker's RBI ground out in the sixth pulled the Bears to within one at 4-3, and Shaw doubled home Brianna DeNucci (Newton, Mass.) with the game-tying run with two outs in the seventh.

Drew, however, plated two runs in the top of the eighth thanks in part to a crucial BSU error. The Bears pushed across one in the bottom half of the inning but could not come up with the equalizing tally.

Shaw paced the Bears offense in game two as she went 4-for-4 with a run, two RBI and a pair of stolen bases.  Jocelyn Bettencourt (Plymouth, Mass.) added two hits (2-for-3) and an RBI.

Megan Dunn (Colchester, Conn.) went the distance in the circle in the loss as she allowed six runs on six hits with a walk and five strikeouts.  Three of the six runs were unearned as the BSU defense committed three errors.  The Bears have made 18 errors over their first eight games as 18 of the team's 32 runs allowed have been unearned.