GREENVILLE, S.C. – Sophomore shortstop Danyelle Noland had a hit in both games but the North Carolina Central University softball team was held to just five total hits on the day in a pair of losses to Oakland University (8-0) and Kent State University (3-0) at Furman University's Pepsi Stadium in the Upstate Invitational Saturday.
 
The Lady Eagles fell to 0-6 on the season after being blanked for the third and fourth times. NCCU has scored just one run in the first four games of the Upstate Invitational. The Maroon and Gray will conclude play in the Upstate Invite against event host USC Upstate at Cyrill Stadium in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on Sunday at 3 p.m.
 
Oakland 8, N.C. Central 0 (6 Innings)
 
The Golden Grizzlies scored runs in five of six innings to slowly pull away for the eight-run rule triumph in six innings. Oakland (1-2) road the arm of sophomore Haley Zemmer to its first win of the season.
 
Zemmer tossed six shutout innings and picked up her first win scattering three hits and striking out six. Zemmer (1-1) kept the clean slate despite NCCU getting a runner in scoring position in three of six frames.
 
Senior Casey Hargett was hit by a pitch in the second inning and stole second; junior Dominique Wilson and Hargett had consecutive singles in the fourth; and Noland poked a one-out single and advanced to second on a senior Markell Wylie walk in the fifth. However, Zemmer used a pair of groundouts and a strikeout to escape all three situations without allowing a run.
 
Oakland totaled 10 hits; with six of them being for extra bases. Senior Sarah Hartley and freshman Mikayela Marciniak both provided the Golden Grizzlies with four runs scored as they each collected a double and a home run. Marciniak also tripled in the third to finish a single shy of the cycle.
 
NCCU freshman Breanna Carter (0-1) made her first collegiate pitching start and allowed four runs (three earned) in four innings of work.
 
Kent State 3, N.C. Central 0
 
The Golden Flashes bounced back from their first loss of the season – a 6-1 setback to Furman – Saturday afternoon by holding the Lady Eagles to just two hits in a tight 3-nil victory.
 
Kent State improved to 8-1 with five of those eight victories coming from junior ace Ronnie Ladines.
 
Ladines (5-0) allowed a leadoff single to Wylie in the bottom of the first but then retired 18 consecutive NCCU batters before surrendering her second and final hit to Noland in the seventh inning. Ladines fanned seven Lady Eagles as she lowered her season ERA to 0.75 in six appearances.
 
The Golden Flashes got on the board early with two unearned runs in the first. A senior Arika Roush RBI-triple in the seventh tacked on KSU's final marker. Classmate Michele Duffy collected two of the victor's five hits.
 
Wilson did not allow an earned run in her four innings of work but she took the loss because of the two unearned runs in the first. Wilson (0-3) had two strikeouts and junior Jennifer Allison struck out a trio of Golden Flashes in three innings of relief work for NCCU.