MONTGOMERY, Ala-- The 23rd-ranked University of Mobile softball team split a Southern States Athletic Conference doubleheader at Faulkner University Tuesday. Mobile took the opener 3-1 and then fell 5-2 in the finale.

The Lady Rams (29-15, 11-12) will be the #3 seed out of the SSAC West and face 9th-ranked Shorter University (42-9, 22-5) Thursday at 4 pm at the 2012 SSAC Tournament. The tournament will be held at South Commons Park in Columbus, Ga. It is a double-elimination tournament with the championship game set for Saturday at 2 pm, or 4 pm if necessary.

In the opener, Kamaron Strickland tossed a complete-game four-hitter and Milagros Lozada homered to lead the way.

Strickland limited Faulkner to one run on four hits, while walking two and striking out one to pick up the win.

The game was scoreless through four innings before Mobile pushed across the first run in the 5th inning. After a Johnna Barnes double put runners at 2nd and 3rd, Brittany Dunson produced a sac fly to score Jessica Palmer.

Lozada then homered with one out in the 6th for the game-winning run, and Barnes singled home Kaci Pribanic with two outs in the 6th to cap the team's scoring.

Lozada finished 2-for-4 with the solo bomb and Barnes went 2-for-3 with one RBI at the dish.

Errors hurt Mobile in game two, as three errors led to five unearned Faulkner runs. The Eagles scored all but one of their runs with a four-run 2nd inning.

Brittney Kerr took the loss for Mobile after giving up four unearned runs on two hits and three walks in 1.1 innings of work. Mattie Dotson limited Mobile to two unearned runs on six hits in a complete-game effort for Faulkner.

At the plate, Lozada homered for the second-straight game and Jessica Palmer finished with a pair of hits for Mobile.

Torri Hollis had two hits and Brooke Chittam scored twice for Faulkner.