The Wright State softball team dropped a pair of games to open the season Friday at the USF Tournament in Tampa, falling 8-0 to Illinois before dropping an 8-6 decision to host South Florida in the second game.

WSU found the offense hard to come by in the first game against Illinois pitcher Shelese Arnold, who allowed just two hits and a walk in striking out three.  The Fighting Illini managed just four hits against Raider pitchers Krystian DeWitt and Nikki Gershen, but took advantage of five walks and a pair of errors in scoring twice in the third, four in the fourth and one in the fifth.

In the second game of the day, Wright State trailed South Florida 3-0 before scoring six runs in the third.  After Kristi Boreing and Jess Gorman advanced into scoring position to start the frame, a Reagan Stofcheck ground out plated the first run and Libby Pfeffer followed with a RBI single through the left side to make it 3-2.

Becka Peterson then gave WSU the lead with her first collegiate home run, a two-run shot to left, and the Raiders later took advantage of two South Florida errors and a wild pitch in adding two more run to extend the advantage to 6-3.

South Florida, however, scored a run in the fourth and tacked on four more in the fifth to pull out the win.

Kacie Rapshus paced the Raider offense with two hits.

Wright State (0-2) continues tournament play on Saturday morning, facing Pittsburgh at 9:00 followed by Binghamton at 11:15.