McPherson, Kan. - The Tigers softball team played their home opener this past weekend in a Saturday-Sunday series against the Oklahoma City University Stars in what would also be the first weekend of conference play for the Tigers.

Game 1, 10-1 L
Scoring began right away in the opening game of the series as the Stars got on the board twice in the first inning followed by an RBI single by Abby Schleisman to make it a 2-1 ballgame. The Stars countered with another run of their own in the 2^nd on a sacrifice fly out. This would be the last of the scoring until a big 5^th inning from the Stars where they put up 7 more runs fueled by a few big hits but also a couple costly errors that made most of the runs given up by pitcher Madalyn Griffin unearned runs. The Tigers could not respond in the 5^th inning to extend the game and would drop the opening game of the series by run rule.

Game 2, 15-2 L
The Stars offense stayed hot in this one scoring in every inning of the game, beginning with 4 runs in the first 2 innings fueled by a couple of homeruns. The Tiger offense struggled at the plate in game 2 generating only 2 hits and 2 unearned runs in the 2^nd inning on a botched drop 3^rd strike and throwing error by the Stars catcher. The Stars surged for 5 more runs in both the 4^th and the 5^th innings of the game to run rule the Tigers again in 5 innings and sweep the Saturday double header.

Game 3, 14-0 L
It was a new day and new opportunity for the Tigers but again it was all Stars in game 3, scoring 4 runs in the first 2 innings like in game 2 the day before and then 10 more runs in the 3^rd inning, all of which were scored with 2 outs as they seemed to find every gap on the field until finally grounding out to end a very long inning. The Tigers failed to respond in the remaining 3 innings and were shutout in 5 innings on just 3 hits.

Game 4, 25-5 L
The Tigers were desperate to flush the previous 3 outcomes and get something going in game 4 to avoid a sweep and a strong 1^st inning from the Tiger offense was a good start. After the stars scored 1 to start the game, Abby Schleisman hit a 3 run triple followed by an RBI single from Mary De La Garza for a 4 run 1^st inning. Neither team scored in the 2^nd inning and then things quickly became out of hand again for the Tigers. The Stars put together a shocking 16 run 3^rd inning on an avalanche of hits to silence any kind of momentum the Tigers had being up 4-1 going into the inning. 8 more Stars runs came across in the 4^th and the Tigers could not respond with anymore runs as another brutal 5 inning run rule would finally conclude a rough weekend for the Tigers with a Stars sweep.

The Tigers who now sit at 1-9 (0-4) will aim to turn things around and get back on track in Bethany, Oklahoma against Southwestern Christian University this Friday and Saturday.