Durant, Okla. – A&M-Commerce opened the Southeastern Regional Invitational with 13-3 loss to No. 16 St. Mary's and a 13-4 win over Newman at the Durant Mulit-Sports Complex with December Rivers going 5-for-7 with six RBI in the two-game set.
 
In game two, with the score knotted at two in the top of the fourth the Lions got their offense started.  Monica Cherry led off with a single then stole second.  Cherry moved to third on a groundball for the first out, and Kylene Hatton reached on a walk.  Luci Ponce strolled to the dish and smacked a two-run single driving in Hatton and Cherry.  Ponce moved to second on the throw to plate and stole third two pitches later with Rivers at the dish.  Rivers gave the Lions a 5-2 lead with a double to drive in Ponce.  The Jets escaped further damage in the inning on a hard line drive at the second baseman and was able to flip the ball to second to catch the Lion pinch runner too far off the bag.
 
The Lions tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh when the duo and Ponce struck again.  Ponce led off the inning with a double and advanced to the third on a wild pitch.  Rivers recorded her second RBI of the game with single driving home Ponce.  After Brenda Iparraguirre reached on an error at short, Johnna Sturm singled to load the bases with no outs.  Aundria Romero followed with two-run double driving in Rivers and Iparraguirre.  The hits kept coming for the Lions when pinch hitter Cyanna Fernandez brought in Sturm and Romero with a single picking up her first RBI of the year.  After a groundout, a strike out and a walk to Ponce to load the bases, Rivers came back to the plate and knocked a two-run double to pick up her third of the RBI of the inning and the fourth of the game.  Iparraguirre followed with a run scoring single to cap off the eight-hit, eight-run seventh to give the Lions a 13-2 lead.
 
Newman pushed across two runs in the bottom of the seventh, but the Lions took the game 13-4.
 
Ponce went 3-for-3 with two RBI and three runs scored, while Rivers had three hits in four at bats with four RBI.  Ipaggaguirre also had three hits for the Lions.
 
Romero worked a complete game in the circle to pick up her fourth win of the season.  She yielded six hits and four runs, two earned, with three strikeouts.
 
In game one, No. 16 St. Mary's set the tone early with a five-run first inning.  The Rattlers took advantage of a pair of Lion errors to score their five runs with only two hits including an RBI double by Vianna Gutierrez to start of the scoring.
 
A&M-Commerce put together an ominous looking inning loading the bases with one out, but were only able to scratch across a pair of runs.  Baylea Higgs singled and eventually worked her way around the base path to score on a pass ball.  The other Lion run came when Ponce scored on a fielder's choice off the bat of Rivers cutting the Rattler lead down to 5-2.
 
However, St. Mary's answered seemingly putting the game out of reach with an RBI single by Gutierrez and a three-run homer by Sydney Wellmann to give the Rattlers a 9-2 lead.
 
The Lions pushed across their final run in the bottom of the third inning on River's second home run of the season, but the Rattlers ended the game after five innings with a four-run top of the fifth inning to claim the 13-3 win.
 
Selena Rima, now 3-1 on the season, was saddle with the loss for the Lions after only one inning of work.  She gave up three hits, but yielded eight runs, only five earned, after facing 13 batters.  Emma Neuweiler worked three and a third innings.  She gave up four hits and three runs, while Courtney Moore saw he first action of the season in two thirds of an inning in the circle.
 
Gutierrez picked up the win for St. Mary's with the complete-game five hitter with seven strikeouts.
 
Rivers was the lone Lions with a multi-hit game after going 2-for-3 at the dish with two RBI and a run scored.
 
The Lions suffered their first loss of the season after opening their inaugural 2015 campaign at 6-0.
 
A&M-Commerce goes into day two at 7-1 on the season and will faceoff against Southwestern Oklahoma State at 12:30 p.m. and Washburn at 3 p.m. before finishing off the event with No. 4 Southeastern Oklahoma State Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
 
Fans can follow all the action from the 2014-15 season on www.LionAthletics.com, through twitter @Lion_Athletics and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LionsAthletics.