PEMBROKE – Visiting Kutztown jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, and the UNCP softball team was not able to rebound from the deficit in falling to the Golden Bears by an 8-2 final on Monday afternoon at LRA Field in Pembroke.

The Lady Braves (1-1, 0-0 PBC) were the fourth team to lose to the Golden Bears (4-0, 0-0 PSAC) at the UNCP Invitational softball tournament on Sunday and Monday.

After Kutztown got out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning, the Golden Bears would push their lead to 6-0 before UNCP would get on the board.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, freshman Schanique Barrett started the rally by reaching on an error and advancing to second before senior Courtney Hill would bring her around with an RBI-double to left center. Sophomore Holly Berry would smash another double in the very next at-bat to score Hill and cut the deficit to 6-2.

Kutztown would add two more runs in the top of the sixth to push their lead to 8-2 and UNCP would not be able to put any more runs across the board in suffering their first loss of the young season.

KU's senior hurler Monica Glomb earned the win after she pitched 4-2/3 innings while only surrendering two unearned runs. UNCP's Caroline Newman took the loss after surrendering three runs in 1/3 of an inning pitched.

The Lady Braves were led at the plate by sophomore Holly Berry, who went 3-for-3 with three doubles, including an RBI-double in the bottom of the fifth inning. With her effort on Monday, Berry has now started the 2011 season by going 6-for-6 with four doubles, four RBI and has notched a 1.667 slugging percentage and a 1.000 on-base percentage (2.667 OPS).

Courtney Hill finished 2-for-4 at the plate with an RBI-double in the fifth inning, and scored one of the Lady Braves' two runs.

UNCP will be back in action tomorrow when they travel to Murfreesboro, N.C. to battle the Chowan Hawks in a nonconference doubleheader starting at noon.