The Robert Morris University softball team dropped its first game in four contests, falling to the Canisius Golden Griffins Wednesday afternoon in the first game of a non-conference doubleheader, 5-1. The second half of the doubleheader was canceled due to field conditions. 

Haileigh Stocks, RMU’s starting pitcher, saw herself in trouble early with the bases loaded and two outs, but was able to get out of the top half of the inning with only surrendering one run.

Despite being down early, the Colonials did not take long to answer to the one run they gave up. Kristen Gabelt hit a long home run over the left field fence to notch everything up at one run apiece.

“She struggled her freshman and sophomore years to get it together and now she has put all the pieces together,” said head coach Craig Coleman when asked about Gabelt’s offensive performance this season. “She’s turned into one of our consistent hitters with an extremely high slugging percentage. She is doing a fantastic job.”

However, Gabelt’s home run was the only run Robert Morris could capture in the loss. The Colonials strung some nice hits together, but Canisius showed up with stellar defense.

“I can’t really make them play bad defense.” Coleman said. “If we’re hitting the ball hard, that is how this sport is. Softball is a cruel sport. You can hit a shot and it can get caught, or you can hit a little nubby thing off the end of the bat and you’re safe. There isn’t much you can do about that. You just have to keep attacking and hitting the ball hard.”

Overall, Coleman was not pleased with the performance of his team on April Fool’s Day. 

“Not up to our standard. I thought we lacked focus at the plate. “I didn’t think we focused and we swung at bad pitches and we took good pitches,” he said. “We didn’t show up to play today.”

The double header against Northeast Conference opponent St. Francis scheduled to be played this Friday was canceled due to poor weather.

Coleman said the game will be made up sometime early next month.

The next time the Colonials will take the field is on the road against St. Bonaventure on April 8.