CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – The Jax State softball team suffered a pair of losses on a cold Saturday at the Chattanooga Challenge.
 
It started positive for the Gamecocks (2-7) when Emma Jones doubled as the leadoff hitter against Ball State in the opening game of the day. She later scored on an sacrifice fly from Lindsey Richardson. Richardson returned in her next at-bat in the fourth to clear the left field fence for a 2-run home run to push Jax State to a 3-0 advantage.
 
Freshman Amber Reed kept the Cardinals scoreless from the circle for the first three innings, but ran into some traffic on the bases and trouble in the fourth. In the top of the fourth, Reed drew a walk at the plate to load the bases behind Morgan Nowakowski and Kenzie Nicholson. Freshman Emma Elrod then showed patience with her own walk to make it a 4-0 game.
 
In the home half of the frame, Ball State bounced back with four runs on four hits to tie the game. MacKinley Portillo came in to pitch where she ended the frame and stranded a pair of BSU runners. Neither team could send a run across the plate in the fifth or sixth, but a leadoff walk for Ball State to begin the bottom of the seventh eventually made its way back to bite the Gamecocks in a 5-4 defeat.
 
In the final game on a bitter cold day in Chattanooga, Jax State dropped a 7-2 contest to North Alabama. Sophomore Makalyn Kyser delivered her first home run of the season and just the second of her career in the afternoon setback.
 
Jax State meets Murray State again on Sunday morning to wrap up the weekend.