Senior Shannon Mongalise collected three hits and three RBI Saturday.

BALTIMORE, Md. – The Niagara University softball team (12-6) won its fifth and sixth consecutive games when it improved to 4-0 at the UMBC Classic Saturday. The Purple Eagles beat Brown University, 7-1, and then knocked off UMBC, 4-2. With the victories, Niagara finished first in pool play, earned a bye into the semifinals and will play the winner of the No. 4 vs. No. 5 game at 1 p.m. Sunday. The championship game is scheduled for 3 p.m.

Niagara 7, Brown 1

Niagara scored five runs in the first inning and collected seven hits for the game, cruising to its fifth-straight win.

Rookie Felicia Coffey (Mesa, Ariz.) hit her first collegiate home run, scoring the Purple Eagles’ first run in the first inning. The Bears walked the next three Niagara hitters and then senior Shannon Mongalise (Bethel Park, Pa.) hit a two-run single down the right-field line to make it 3-0. Junior Ashley Bognar (Tonawanda, N.Y./Cardinal O’Hara) brought in the fourth run, squeezing senior Nicole Sum (Burnaby, B.C.) home, and then she scored when junior Lisa Baker (West Seneca, N.Y./West Seneca) walked.

Niagara took a 7-0 lead in the fourth when sophomore Tory Healy (Las Vegas, Nev.) squeezed Baker home and Sum singled in Coffey.

Sophomore Brooke Viola (Los Alamitos, Calif.) picked up her second win of the season, throwing a four-hitter with a career-high eight strikeouts.

Niagara 4, UMBC 2

Niagara scored often and early again to avenge an earlier loss to UMBC.

The Purple Eagles took a 2-0 lead after the first inning when Coffey doubled to left field, move to third on freshman Jennifer Yee’s (North Delta, B.C.) single and then scored on a Healy single. Mongalise picked up her third of RBI of the day with a single to right field to score Yee.

In the third inning, Yee singled and then scored when Healy hit her fourth home run of the season to center field.

UMBC scored in the third when Courtney O’Hara tripled and then scored on an error. The Retrievers scored their final run in the fifth when Krissy Licursi doubled and scored on Ward’s single.

Niagara sophomore Tiffany McCrory (Albuquerque, N.M.) won her sixth game of the season and second of the tournament, throwing a five hitter with four strikeouts.

Mongalise was 2 for 3 with a triple and Healy was 2 for 4 with a home run and three RBI.