CLEVELAND – The Penn State Altoona softball team suffered a 15-1 loss in five innings to No. 3 Case Western Reserve University on Thursday, the opening day of the NCAA Division III Tournament's Cleveland Region at Mather Park.

Making its first NCAA postseason appearance since 2014, Penn State Altoona (25-13) found itself in an early hole and was unable to dig out. Case Western (38-3), the host for the regional bracket and number three team in the national top 25 poll, scored nine first-inning runs en route to a 14-run victory over the Lions.

Cameryn Feathers (Martinsburg, PA/Central) was 1-for-2 with a double and a run scored for Penn State Altoona, while Alyssa Fisher (Lock Haven, PA/Central Mountain) went 1-for-2 with a walk. Madison Lucas (Philipsburg, PA/Philipsburg-Osceola) also finished 1-for-2, and Brooke Colledge (Everett, PA/Everett) was 1-for-3. Hanna Lauck (Bellefonte, PA/Bellefonte) recorded the Lions' lone RBI.

Fisher got the start in the circle and pitched a complete game in the loss.

Case Western took a commanding lead early, getting nine runs across in the bottom of the first inning. Isabella Russo's RBI double and Amanda Riely's RBI single put the Spartans on the board, and back-to-back two-run singles by Kaila Nutter and Elizabeth Berry made it 6-0. A KaiLi Gross two-RBI single got the home team's lead to eight, and another Riely RBI base hit boosted the Case Western advantage to 9-0.

Penn State Altoona got a run back in the top of the second. Feathers led off the frame with a double to left-center field, moved up to third base on a wild pitch, and then scored on Lauck's RBI groundout.

But Case Western kept the scoring coming in the bottom half of the second, when the Spartans tacked four more runs on to their total. Berry's RBI groundout scored the inning's first run, and run-scoring singles by Brianna Landers, Gross, and Russo made it 13-1.

A two-run double by Riely in the bottom of the fourth inning set the Case Western lead at 15-1, and the Spartans maintained their advantage through the top of the fifth to end the game early via the eight-run rule.

Penn State Altoona now moves to the losers' bracket, and the Lions will face the University of Mount Union in an elimination game tomorrow, Friday, May 19, at 2:30 p.m. The winner of that contest plays at 5 p.m. later that day, while the loser is knocked out of the tournament.