CLEARWATER, Fla. — After sweeping Western Michigan and Temple on Saturday, Central Arkansas closed out the USF/Under Armour Invitational with a 5-1 loss to Loyola Marymount on Sunday to finish 2-3 in Clearwater. The Bears also fell to No. 11 Stanford and South Florida on Friday.

The Bears (8-14) got on the board first, going ahead 1-0 in the top of the 2nd when Ashley Boswell laid down a squeeze bunt to bring in Briana Whisenhunt, who had tripled to lead off the inning. Boswell later stole second, but was left stranded.

After holding LMU (7-8) scoreless for 3.1 innings, the Bears surrendered a pair to the Lions in the bottom of the 4th on a two-run homer from Amanda Dirks. LMU added another in the 5th before UCA pitcher Kylie Studioso was relieved by Kayla Gomness, who allowed two more LMU runs in the 6th before giving way to Kelsie Barker, who recorded the final out.

In addition to Whisenhunt's triple, sophomore third baseman Sam Forrest had a triple and a single for the Bears, and sophomore second baseman Sarah Bigej also singled. The Bears struck out 16 times against LMU sophomore pitcher Sydney Gouveia, the 2013 Pacific Coast Softball Conference Pitcher of the Year, who is now 7-1 with an 0.57 ERA and 72 strikeouts in 49 innings.

The Bears will begin Southland Conference play this weekend at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi before returning home to host Missouri State on Tuesday, March 11.