JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The Mount St. Mary's softball team lost a pair of games in the first day of the North Florida Invitational on Friday. The Mount (4-5) lost 3-2 to Kansas in the opener before host North Florida took the nightcap, 9-0 in five innings.

Beth Everist (Lansdale, Pa./North Penn) smacked a two-run homer against the Jayhawks (18-2) while Jenna Zimmerman (Walkersville, Md./Walkersville) posted three hits in the two games.

Mount St. Mary's nearly pulled the upset, batting Kansas toe-to-toe until the Jayhawks scored three times in the sixth to come from behind to deal the Mount a 3-2 loss in the opener.

The Mountaineers grabbed a 2-0 lead in the third inning. Taylor Beebe (Olympia, Wash./Capital) walked to start the inning and came around to score on Everist's second homer of the season.

Despite five Mount St. Mary's errors, starter Nicole Pagano (Berlin, N.J./St. Joseph) held Kansas to two hits and zero runs through five innings. Aided by two errors, the Jayhawks scored three times in the sixth to take a 3-2 edge.

Elsa Moyer scored the first run for Kansas when she moved to third on a double by Mariah Montgomery and but touched home on a throwing error on the play. Rosie Hull then tied the game with an infield RBI single before Hull scored on an error to give the Jayhawks a 3-2 margin.

Mount St. Mary's went down 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh. Zimmerman got into scoring position twice in the contest, but could not cross the plate. The senior singled to open the second, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and to third on an error with one out. The Jayhawks got out of the jam with a fly out to left and a strikeout. Zimmerman doubled with two outs in the sixth, but was stranded after a ground out ended the inning.

Pagano took the loss after allowing three runs on six hits with four strikeouts in a complete-game effort.

After the heartbreaker against Kansas, the Ospreys defeated Mount St. Mary's 9-0 in five innings. North Florida scored four times in the second and five times in fourth to earn its third win against the Mountaineers.

North Florida registered four runs in the second on a Caroline Torre RBI single, an Alyson Bailey RBI base hit and a Lauren Pollack two-run double. In the fourth, the Ospreys got a Pollack RBI double, a Mariah Reynolds two-run homer and a two-run triple from Kaley Brosky.

Amanda Sadowl (Horsham, Pa./Hatboro-Horsham) took the loss for the Mountaineers.

Everist moved into second place for career home runs with 15 round trippers while Nicole Reeder (Glen Burnie, Md./Archbishop Spalding) moved into fourth place for career walks with 49.

Mount St. Mary's returns to action on Saturday against Alabama State. First pitch is 3 p.m.