MECHANICSBURG, Pa. – Despite not having played since March 15, the bats of the Susquehanna softball team were anything but rusty. Unfortunately, Thursday's opponent – Messiah – was also hitting on all offensive cylinders and defeated SU 15-10.

Susquehanna (9-4) finished with three home runs on the day with the second game of the scheduled doubleheader rained out.

The Crusaders had 12 hits with the Falcons (7-6) recording 16 of their own. Leigh Ann Greenwald (Piscataway, N.J./Immaculata) went 4-for-4 at the plate with two RBI and a run scored. Alyssa Cantalini (Kitchener, Ontario/St. David Catholic Secondary) went 3-for-4 with two RBI while Amanda Neveroski (Toms River, N.J./Toms River North) had two hits, two RBI and two runs scored.

Starting pitcher Morgan Lewis (Newtown, Pa./Council Rock North) tossed the first three innings, giving up six runs on five hits. Jamie Fesinstine (Long Valley, N.J./West Morris Central) entered the game in the fourth and pitched the final three innings and surrendered nine runs on 11 hits.

Brianna Murphy (Hazlet, N.J./Mater Dei Prep) led off the game with a homer to left center and just like that, the Crusaders were up 1-0.

SU put two more runners on base before Heather Pearson (Alexandria, Va./Bishop Ireton) came to bat and knocked a three-run home run over the left field fence to up that lead to 4-0.

In the top of the second, Neveroski's one-out single to center plated two more runners before Cantalini drove home Neveroski with a double to left field, making it 7-0.

The Falcons were able to get back two of those runs in the bottom of the second on three hits but Lewis got out of a bases-loaded jam to prevent further damage. Messiah then scraped together another run in the third to pull within four (7-3).

The game turned in Messiah's favor in the fourth when the Falcons got to Fesinstine for five runs on five hits and one Crusader error. In the middle of the inning, four straight Messiah batters drove in runs and the Falcons came out of the inning leading 8-7.

Greenwald quickly put SU back in the lead, though, with a two-out, two-run home run to left field in the top of the fifth for a 9-8 Crusader advantage.

However, Messiah countered with another five-run inning in the bottom of the fifth to break the tie and take a 13-9 edge.

Cantalini's RBI single in the sixth made it 13-10 but a two-run home run by Messiah's Carrie Fix in the bottom of the sixth upped the team's lead to five (15-10), which remained the final as the Crusaders left two runners stranded in the seventh.

Susquehanna hosts Juniata on Sunday, March 29 in a rescheduled doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.