The Muhlenberg softball team split its first two games at the Margie Knight Classic at Salisbury, including a win against a nationally ranked opponent.

The Mules (8-4) opened with a 3-1 win against 20th-ranked Tufts, a team that made it all the way to the NCAA Division III championship round last season. In their second game, they were shut out by Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 5-0.

The defeat of Tufts marked the fourth consecutive game in which Muhlenberg allowed one run or fewer. Three pitchers - senior Justine Bergara, freshman Abigail Kim and sophomore Samantha Fehrenbach - combined to scatter eight hits and pitch out of trouble the entire game, stranding 12 Jumbo baserunners. 

Bergara allowed four consecutive one-out singles in the first, when Tufts scored its lone run, but prevented further damage with a strikeout and a flyout. She worked into the fifth to earn her 25th career win. 

Kim (pictured above) came on in the fifth with two on and one out and retired the first two hitters she faced to retire the side. Tufts put two runners on with two outs in the sixth, but again she got the final out with no runs scoring.

Fehrenbach pitched a hitless seventh to earn her third career save.

The Mules broke a 1-1 tie in the fourth on an RBI double by graduate student Gillian Zack, who came around to score an insurance run on a single by junior Scooter Hulsen.

Muhlenberg managed only four hits - three by sophomore Peri Kahn - in the second game.