Tucson, Arizona - The Thunderbird softball team kicked off their season on Thursday night in Tucson at the Hillenbrand Invitation, falling to the No. 13 Arizona Wildcats 10-2 in five innings.

“I don't believe the score of today's game is at all indicative of the way our kids played,” SUU head coach Tom Gray said. “Going into Tucson on the first day of the season is never an easy task. But I felt like we handled it well, especially after the first inning.”

The Thunderbirds got their first run of the season in the top of the first inning, when starting pitcher Jordan Theurer hit the ball out of the park to put a point on the board for the Thunderbirds.

Arizona's bats came alive early, as they were able to put six runs on the board in the bottom of the first inning. Their big inning was capped by a two-run homer by Nancy Bowling.

SUU struck again in the top of the second inning, when Morgan Leonard hit the ball out of the park to put SUU's second run on the board.

“Offensively, of course the two home runs were a bright spot and we had quite a few more very good at bats that did not show up on the box score,” Gray said.

The Wildcats did the rest of the scoring, putting up one more run in the third and two more in the fifth to force the game to conclude early, with a 10-2 victory in the books for the Wildcats.

Katakana Mauga, Hillary Edior and Lauren Young all finished with two RBIs for the Wildcats to lead the scoring effort.

The Thunderbirds were only able to get two hits on Thursday night, which both knocked the ball out of the park.

Theurer got the start for the Thunderbirds in the circle, and will move to 0-1 to start the season.  

Gray said he was impressed with the play of catcher Leonard, who threw out two runners on the night.

The Thunderbirds will play a doubleheader tomorrow against the Purdue Boilermakers, and this same Wildcats team. Those games are slated to start at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. respectively.