WEST POINT, N.Y. – An improved Lafayette softball team nearly pulled off the series upset on Monday in the second weekend of Patriot League play. The Leopards led 2-1 heading into the seventh before Army pushed across a pair of runs in a 3-2 final.
 
Lafayette received a strong starting pitching performance from senior Marisa Powell. Powell tossed five innings, surrendering just one unearned run in the fifth inning. She struck out five and walked one.
 
It was a pitchers' duel throughout on a warm spring day on the Hudson. The Black Knights scored the only run of the first five frames in the fifth. Mia Bonsignore doubled with one out in the inning and scored on a two-out error. Powell ended the inning with a strikeout.
 
The Leopards responded with two runs in the sixth. With seniors Olivia Catalina (walk) and Dani Rosner (hit by pitch) aboard, junior Katie Harrington ripped a double to the wall in center field to score both runners.
 
Junior Parker Rowden came on to pitch in relief in the bottom of the sixth, allowing a one-out single before two flyouts ended the inning with a 2-1 lead intact.
 
As the game moved to the seventh, the Leopards threatened, putting a runner in scoring position with one out. Army reliever Breanna Izzo enticed Sabina Lehnert into a groundout before striking out Catalina to end the inning.
 
In the last of the seventh, Army loaded the bases with two infield singles and a fielder's choice. Taylor Brown followed with her first hit of the series to shallow right field to knot the game at 2-2. The next batter, Ashton White, hit Rowden's 1-0 pitch to center field. Catalina corralled it efficiently, but the throw to the plate was a split second behind the tagging baserunner to end the game.
 
Rowden threw 1.2 innings, giving up two runs on four hits in the loss. Izzo collected her second victory of the series, scattering two hits over the final two innings.
 
Lafayette takes a brief break from Patriot League play, hosting a doubleheader with Stony Brook at 1 p.m. on Saturday.