BATON ROUGE – Northwestern State softball committed a combined six errors and was edged by one run in both a pitchers dual and high scoring affair on Day 1 of LSU's Purple and Gold Challenge, falling 9-8 to Ball State and 3-2 to Florida Atlantic.

"We had some moments where we lacked focus," seventh-year head coach Donald Pickett said. "We've got to continue to be focused every pitch. Today, we definitely had a chance to win two ballgames and we made mistakes we don't normally make."

NSU (8-10) took an 8-4 lead against Ball State (7-8) into the bottom of the fifth inning before the Cardinals scored five times, four coming on a grand slam, to hold on.

Against Florida Atlantic (15-1), a Brittney Jones RBI double to left center field cut the lead to within two at 3-1 in the sixth. After Natalie Landry reached on an error, the Lady Demons drew consecutive walks from Kaytie Proctor and Natalie Rhodes to close the gap to one, at 3-2.

The Lady Demons return to play on Saturday against Ball State at 2:30 p.m. before closing out the tournament at 7:30 p.m. against host No. 7 LSU.

Northwestern State rattled off 11 hits against Ball State, highlighted by Kellye Kincannon's three-run home run – the fifth of her season – but the Cardinals secured 15 hits and were helped by three Lady Demon errors.

"We came out and did something early and they came back," Pickett said. "We had the three run home run after they made the pitching change and we felt we had some momentum going. We played well for the first three and half innings but we didn't finish the game."

Seven NSU players recorded hits, including Brittany Virgoe, who gave the Lady Demons a 1-0 lead on her third home run of the season in the first inning. Virgoe finished three for four at the plate including two RBIs and three runs scored.

Cassandra Barefield continued her hot streak, finishing with three hits of her own. Jones got aboard three times via a walk and drove in two runs on a third inning RBI single.

Baylee Gray drew the loss, after coming in for Micaela Bouvier. Bouvier finished with 3 1-3 innings pitched, 10 hits and six earned runs. Gray was lifted after two hits and two earned runs without registering an out. Shelby Sells was successful out of the bullpen, tossing 2 2-3 innings, allowing three hits and no runs while striking out two.

In Game 1, Florida Atlantic jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third, helping by a Northwestern State error to lead off the inning. NSU was able to escape further damage by turning a 1-2-3 double play and forcing a pop up one batter later.

Sidney Salmans registered NSU's first hit of the game in the fifth inning while Virgoe and Jones were responsible for NSU's two other hits.

In the circle, Cagle drew the loss, tossing 4 2-3 innings, allowing one hit and six walks to finish with three runs, one being earned. Baylee Gray came on in relief, sitting down all four FAU hitters she faced.

Fans can follow @NSUDemonsSB on Twitter for all of the weekend action from Baton Rouge.