MILWAUKEE -- The Alverno College softball team dropped a pair of games in its Northern Athletics Conference opener to Concordia University Chicago, suffering an 8-0 shutout in the first game and mustering one run for a 6-1 loss in the second game at Alverno Field.

Alverno's (5-11, 0-2 NAC) lone run of the day came off a solo home run by freshman catcher Stef Wilmore (Elkhart, Ind./Central) in the bottom of the seventh inning with two outs to nix Concordia's chance a second shutout victory. 

"We definitely had a rough start," said Alverno head coach Kristin Kosobucki of her squad's opening effort in league play. "I think we came out a little flat, and offensively we got shut down the first game with their pitcher throwing the no-hitter. Up until the last couple innings of the second game we were just very quiet offensively."

In addition to struggling at the plate with the flawless pitching of the Cougars' Sami DeFord (South Bend, Ind.), who also racked up 10 strikeouts in five innings for her first complete game of the day, the Inferno also committed five errors in each game resulting in just three earned runs in each contest.

"We definitely can't have five errors in each game," Kosobucki said. "Defensively we'll need to make those adjustments as we move through our conference schedule."

The Inferno got their bats going against DeFord right away in the first inning of the second game on a single by Wilmore. Alverno would continue to scatter hits throughout the game, finishing with eight collectively, but the team was unable to string enough together to score leaving 10 runners stranded on base.

"We're going to keep getting beat if we leave that many people on base in a game," Kosobucki said. "I've been saying all year that we need to find ways to come up with those timely, key hits."

Wilmore led the Inferno at the plate with three hits, one of which was her solo homer, while freshman first baseman Jamie Villalobos (Antioch, Ill.) recorded two hits. Junior outfielder Andrea Derrick (Greenfield, Wis.) had the team's only other multi-base hit with a double in the fourth inning while freshmen Roxanne Kresmer (South Milwaukee, Wis.) and Natalie Petrie (Franklin, Wis.) each had a single.

Senior Jessica Goetz (Milwaukee, Wis./Greendale Martin Luther) suffered the pair of losses in the circle to move to 5-7 on the season. She threw for eight strikeouts on the day, five in the second game, and allowed 19 hits in 12 complete innings pitched.

Alverno will continue NAC play on Tuesday, April 6, with Aurora University for another home doubleheader.

"It will definitely be a tough game and we need to see some adjustments between now and then in terms of eliminating errors and working on our other weaknesses," Kosobucki said. "We know that their team is strong every year, so we need to come out ready to go and start hitting right away."

First pitch on Tuesday is slated for 3 p.m. at Alverno Field.