Salisbury, MD --- No. 13 Salisbury snapped the WPI softball team's season opening win-streak with an 8-6 victory on Friday afternoon, however the Engineers did not stop fighting right until the end. 
 
Salisbury (8-1) jumped out to a 6-0 lead after the first three innings, a lead that despite a five-run sixth inning, the Engineers (3-1) were unable to overcome. 
 
Naomi Boldebuck (Billerica, MA) got things started off from the rubber for WPI pitching the first three innings of action, allowing six hits and six runs, just two earned. Sofia Knopf (Plymouth, MA) stepped into the game in relief allowing just a pair of hits and runs while walking two and striking out two. However the two runs allowed in the bottom of the sixth earned her first loss of the season. 
 
Lucy Latour (North Dighton, MA) went 3-for-4 on the day driving in four runs while Salisbury was led by a 2-for-3 effort from Alayna Gigliotti (Dover, DE) who netted the lone roundtripper of the game. Sydney Adolfson (Newtown, CT) pitched 4.1innings of action for the Seagulls earning the win after allowing just two hits. 
 
The Seagulls netted a pair of runs in the bottom of the first, another run in the bottom of the second and three more runs in the bottom of the third to take an early 6-0 advantage. 
 
It took until the fifth inning for WPI to get on the board. After Meg Sherwood (Norfolk, MA) got hit by a pitch to reach base, Latour drove her in from first on a double to left field to make it a 6-1 game. 
 
In the top of the sixth, WPI evened the score with its five-run inning. Riley O'Brien (Wynantskill, NY) again started things off by getting hit by a pitch to reach in the first at-bat of the inning as Suzannah Figler (Baltimore, MD) stepped in to pinch run in her home state. Emma Nagy (Monroe, WA) was also hit by a pitch putting runners on first and second and prompting a pitching change for the Seagulls. 
 
Destiny Lum (Kahalu'u, HI) loaded the bases after reaching after an error by the Salisbury third baseman and Grace Grant (Orlando, FL) came up big for the Engineers with a single to left field to drive in a run and keep the bases loaded. Ariana Kreuzer (Walpole, MA) earned a sacrifice fly to centerfield that brought home the second run of the inning making it a 6-3 game and Sherwood drew another free pass to, once again, load the bases back up. 
 
Latour picked up three of her four RBIs on the day with a double to left field that cleared the bases and evened the game up at six-apiece getting WPI right back into things. 
 
But the ranked Seagulls could not be deterred as they fought hard for a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning to regain the lead and shutdown the Engineers 1-2-3 in the seventh to eke out the victory. 
 
The Engineers continue play with the Margie Knight Classic at the Henry S. Parker Athletic Complex beginning on Saturday, March 15 at 11am when they take on regional foe No. 20 Tufts to start the tournament off. Salisbury will also take part in the tournament and face another set of NEWMAC Engineers as they square off against MIT also Saturday at 11am.