LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Pacific softball dropped a pair of West Coast Conference games at Loyola Marymount Saturday afternoon at Smith Field, falling 4-0 in the first game and 4-2 in the nightcap.

Loyola Marymount 4, Pacific 0

Avery Croxall earned her third start in the circle for the Tigers (11-30, 1-6) this season and pitched 3.2 innings, allowing three earned runs on three hits. After the Lions (30-14, 6-1) gained the lead in the bottom half of the first inning, Croxall settled down and kept the Lions off the board for the next two innings. The sophomore from Pleasant Grove, Calif., only allowed three baserunners and tallied two strikeouts during that span.

Vanessa Strong entered the game for her eighth relief appearance of the season and pitched the final 2.1 innings of the game. Strong only allowed one baserunner in the last two frames and fanned one batter for her team-leading 67th strikeout of the season.

Loyola Marymount 4, Pacific 2

The Lions took an early 2-0 lead after tallying runs in the second and third innings. The Tigers, however, bounced back, recording runs in the fourth and sixth innings to tie the game at two runs apiece. In the fourth inning, Rian Dirmeyer led off with her fifth double of the season and later scored to cut the deficit in half on a Delaney Scully RBI single to right field. Dirmeyer

Pacific tied the game at two in the top half of the sixth inning as the Tigers brought five batters to the plate. Reagan Hamilton led off the inning with a double to right field and quickly moved to third base on a Jenna Perez wild pitch. Scully later tallied her second RBI of the afternoon on a sacrifice fly as Nikki Enriquez, running for Hamilton, recorded the tying run.

The Lions solidified the game in the following half-inning, scoring two runs to earn the narrow victory.

Amiyah Aponte earned the start for the Tigers in the nightcap, allowing four earned runs on five hits in 5.1 innings of work. Strong entered the game in the sixth inning, collecting the final two outs of the inning as the Lions stranded two runners.

"The numbers indicate we didn't hit well today," Head Coach Brian Kolze stated after the game. "We are happy with the adjustments we started making in the second game, and we definitely played better during that game." "I feel all our pitchers did a pretty good job today, even if the scores did not reflect that."

Pacific returns to action on Sunday, April 24, as the Tigers take on Loyola Marymount at 10 a.m. to close out the series at Smith Field.