DETROIT -- The Wayne State University softball team (19-15 overall, 3-2 GLIAC) won the first game of Friday's home opener doubleheader 1-0 over the University of Findlay (12-10 overall, 2-1 GLIAC), while the second game was suspended at 1-1 after eight innings due to darkness.

The opener was a classic pitchers duel between Warrior sophomore Lyndsay Butler (Cambridge, Ont. / Centennial C.V.I.) and Oiler hurler Chelsea McManaway (5-4).  Butler (10-6) notched her second shutout of the season by limiting UF to two singles and facing just 23 batters.

Butler struck out seven and walked one and retired 16 consecutive Findlay hitters after a leadoff single via a swinging bunt in the second.

McManaway kept pace with Butler through six innings finishing with four strikeouts, three walks and two hit by pitches.  It was this wildness that cost McManaway in the bottom of the seventh.  Pinch-hitter Briana Lee (Canton, Mich. / Salem) walked on four consecutive pitches.  Sophomore Allie Buchanan (Cambridge, Ont. / Galt C.I.) was hit on the second pitch of her at bat, advancing junior Shannon Hilton (Gilford, Ont. / Bradford), who had re-entered for Lee, to second.  After an eight-minute rain delay, Butler popped up to short.  Freshman Kristen Lucas (Newmarket, Ont. / Mulock S.S.) walked on four pitches to load the bases, and senior Nikki Fulton (Stratford, Ont. / St. Michael Catholic S.S.), who had recorded her 100th career RBI last Sunday in the game two win at Ashland, hit the first offering deep into center field, allowing Hilton to tag and score the game-winning run.

Junior third baseman Jade McGarr (Guelph, Ont. / St. James Catholic) led WSU with two hits, while Lucas reached base three times on a 1-for-2 effort plus two walks.

The nightcap was scoreless until Kelley Cejer led off the bottom of the third with a solo home run to left field on a 3-1 pitch from Lee.

Lee re-grouped and retired nine of the next 10 Findlay batters until a lined single leading off the bottom of the sixth by Jenna Huff.  Lee was able to set down the next eight UF hitters until a two-out single in the bottom of the eight off her glove by Huff.

Meanwhile Oiler pitcher Nicole Motuza held WSU to just one run in her five-plus innings in the circle.  Wayne State stranded five runners through the first five frames, before Fulton led off the top of the sixth wtih a single up the middle.  Senior catcher Emily Bryce (Rochester Hills, Mich. / Rochester Adams) followed with a double to the warning track in right putting two runners in scoring position, which prompted a Findlay pitching change to Bonnie Zappitelli.  McGarr hit a 1-2 offering into deep left field allowing Fulton to knot the game at 1-1.

Butler and Fulton each had two hits in game two, while Lee recorded nine strikeouts to two walks in her eight innings of work.

Wayne State will host Hillsdale College in a twinbill on Saturday at the WSU Softball Stadium starting at 1 p.m.