Clermont, Fla. - First-year RHP Jordan Stephan (South Orange, N.J.) tossed a no-hitter with five strikeouts and no walks in her collegiate debut and senior tri-captain Nicole Towner (Erie, Calif.) went 2-for-2 with a home run and five RBIs at the plate to lead the Trinity College Bantams to a season-opening, 8-0 win over the University of Maine-Farmington Beavers in Spring Games Softball action this morning at Hancock Field.  Trinity, which lost its second game today, 7-2, against the St. Lawrence University Saints, plays Framingham State and Bethany (W.V.) tomorrow at 9:15 a.m. and 11:15 a.m., respectively. Stephan faced the minimum 15 batters over five innings with the lone baserunner reaching on an error before a double play ended the fourth inning.

Trinity took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when sophomore Samantha Witmer (Drexel Hill, Pa.) singled and classmate Jenna Thomas (Orange, Conn.) doubled before Towner drove both home with a two-out single.  Towner belted a three-run homer in the third inning, while both first-year IF Maura Keary (Fairfield, Conn.) and senior tri-captain Courtney Erickson (Everett, Mass.) doubled and scored thanks to three wild pitches and a double steal in the fourth frame.  The Bantams ended the game in the fifth inning due to the eight-run mercy rule, when sophomore 1B Gillian Birk (Westport, Conn.) led off with a single and scored on Witmer's third hit of the game. Witmer finished 3-for-3 with two runs and was hit by a pitch, while Thomas finished 2-for-3 at the plate, and sophomore 3B Hannah Zukowski (Burlington, Conn.) reached base safely in three plate appearances with a single and two HBPs.  Senior Kailyn Hill took the loss for the Beavers.

In the St. Lawrence game, two early runs gave the Saints a 2-0 lead after one inning, but Trinity tied the score in the top of the third thanks to a single by sophomore Cassidy Schiff (Darien, Conn.) and a two-run blast by Erickson.  The game-winning run scored in the bottom of the third on a sacrifice fly by Saint sophomore Skylar Hein and St. Lawrence added three more runs that inning on a two-run single by freshman Lauryn Best and a Bantam throwing error.  Schiff doubled in the fifth inning and both Erickson and Zukowski singled in the sixth, the second hits of the game for all three, but Trinity could not push any more runs across and the Saints added one more in the sixth inning.  Trinity senior tri-captain Lindsay Pressman (Huntington, N.Y.) yielded six runs in 2.2 innings to take the loss in the circle, while Stephan pitched the last 3.1 innings with six hits allowed, a hit, and six K's.