GREENSBORO, N. C. - The Mary Baldwin softball team split Sunday's doubleheader at Guilford, winning the opener 5-3 before suffering a tough 9-8 setback in the second game.

The Fighting Squirrels jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first game and held off the Quakers to take the victory. The win was the first for MBU over Guilford in two decades.

MBU scored in the top of the first inning. Marybeth Strickler led off and reached first on an error. Strickler moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Leanna Rankin and scored on Allison Crum's single for a 1-0 lead.

The Fighting Squirrels took advantage of three Gyulford erors in the second inning to score two more runs. Rankin had a key run-scoring single in the inning as MBU moved ahead 3-0.

Olivia Gagne led off the fourth inning with a single. Strickler followed with a single and a throwing error on the play allowed Gagne to score while Strickler reaced around to the third base. Strickler scored on Crum's squeeze bunt, putting the Squirrels up 5-0.

Guilford rallied with three runs in the fifth, but Morgan Hughes blanked the Quakers over the final two innings to finish off her complete-game effort in the circle, preserving MBU's 5-3 victory.

Crum was 2-for-3 at the plate with two RBIs to pace the MBU offense.

The Squirrels were in the verge of completing a sweep, leading 8-2 after five innings of Game 2. The Quakers however, rallied with six runs in the sixth to tie the score and then pushed across the winning run in the bottom of the seventh to take a 9-8 victory.

Strickler and Gagne each finished with three hits to pace the hitting attack. Crum was 2-for-4 and added three RBIs in the second game.