CANTON -- The Missouri Valley College softball team left its bats at home Saturday during a trip to Culver-Stockton, losing a pair of one-run Heart of America Conference contests, 4-3 and 1-0.

The Lady Wildcats scored twice in the bottom of the first inning of the opener, on back-to-back solo homers by sophomores Jessica Webb and Danielle Kaltmayer, and never trailed during the day. Kaltmayer singled in a run in the third to make it 3-0, but the Lady Vikings came back.

Junior Kimberly Fuller led off the fourth with a double and came in on a passed ball. Fuller doubled again in her next at-bat, in the fifth, driving in two runs to make it 3-3.

However, Culver went ahead in the bottom half of the frame. Webb was hit by a pitch with two outs and nobody on base. Kaltmayer walked to send Webb to second base, from where she scored on senior Jackie Clark's double.

That was all senior Sara Eggleston needed. She gave up a one-out single to junior Esperanza Reyes in the sixth, but retired the six other batters she faced to close out the win.

Valley was unable to put anything together against Kaltmayer in the nightcap, shut out for the second time in the last three games. For six innings, sophomore Tatum Hathcock was up to the challenge, allowing only two hits.

The Lady Vikings, though, stranded eight runners during the game. That came back to haunt them in the bottom of the seventh when Culver-Stockton (11-14, 3-1 HAAC) put the first two runners on board on a single by Clark and walk to junior Carley Thurston. Bunts brought Clark around to score, beating the throw and tag to the plate on a ball hit to third base with one out.

The loss was the fifth in a row for Valley (9-15, 1-4), which hosts Evangel on Wednesday.