HAMILTON, NY— Niagara Softball dropped a pair of pitcher's duels against Colgate University, 2-1 and 2-0, on Thursday.

Niagara 1, Colgate 2

In game one Sydney Smyers took to the circle for the Purple Eagles, allowing seven hits and two runs through 6.2 innings pitched. Her counterpart Brigit leuter kept Colgate in the game allowing four hits and one run over six before handing the ball over to Kira Griswold for the seventh.

Colgate opened the scoring in the third when Katie Bushee singled and stole second with one out, then came around to score on a two out double by Tara Grennan. Niagara loaded the bases via two singles and hit by pitch, leading to a two out single by Victoria Bretz, scoring was Amanda Werth. That would be all for Niagara in the inning as they left the bases loaded.

The game would remain tied until the bottom of the seventh, with Smyers retiring seven of the last eight batters faced, she allowed the walk off triple to Bushee, scoring was Alex Gadiano to end game one.

Niagara 0, Colgate 2

In game two Niagara (4-37, 4-12) got a solid outing from Taylor Grieger, who didn't allow a hit from the second inning to the fifth, retiring five of seven batters faced. The fifth was when Colgate (16-16, 9-6) took the lead with a two out single by Grennan. Niagara looked to respond in the top half of the sixth, as Desarae Maldonado lead off with a single, but was erased on a double play, ending the scoring opportunity.

In the bottom of the sixth the Raiders had runners on the corners and no outs, a failed safety squeeze caught Leuter at the plate for the first out. However, later in the inning Colgate would push across its second run of the game on a Kate Zucker single into right. The Purple Eagles would go down 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh to end the game.

Niagara heads to New Jersey to finish the season against MAAC rivals Rider on Saturday and Quinnipiac on Sunday.