HICKORY, N.C. | The top-ranked Young Harris College softball team dropped their first games of the season Saturday (Feb. 29) at the Lenoir-Rhyne Invitational at Bears Field.

The Mountain Lions were edged 11-10 in nine innings to tournament host and No. 20-ranked Lenoir-Rhyne University in the opener before dropping a 9-1 decision in five innings to Lees-McRae College.

Young Harris fell to 12-2. The Mountain Lions will face Lenoir-Rhyne at noon Sunday (March 1) before a 2 p.m. contest against Lees-McRae.

YHC rallied from a 7-5 deficit after six innings against the Bears by scoring three runs in the seventh. Carly Rigsbee smacked a two-run homer to left field to tie the game at 7 before the Mountain Lions took the lead on Michalyn Bingham's double to right-center.

The Bears scored an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh to send the game into extra innings. 

Both teams put up runs in the eighth before YHC took to a 10-9 lead on Emily Harris's RBI single in the ninth, but the Bears rallied to score twice in the bottom of the inning.

Biz Walters led the Mountain Lions with three hits, while Harris, Walters, Maddie Urquiola and Rigsbee each drove in two runs. 

Sam Davis (3-1) took the loss for YHC.

In game two, Lees-McRae scored three runs in the first and added six more runs in the fifth inning. 

Morgan Curley drove in the Mountain Lions run with a fifth-inning single.

Sara King (3-1) absorbed the defeat for the Mountain Lions.