Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The Southern Arkansas softball team scored 14 runs and cranked out 17 hits across both games on Friday afternoon as they powered their way to a 4-1 win in the opener and a 10-2 win in the nightcap to complete a doubleheader sweep over Harding University at Lady Mulerider Field.
 
In the opening game, the Lady Muleriders (13-11, 8-6 GAC) got an outstanding pitching performance from starter Hanna Gill. Gill would pitch a complete-game and allow just one run on three hits while striking out a season-high nine batters.
 
Gill, who moved to 4-1 on the year, would not have to wait long to get run support as the Lady Muleriders plated a pair of runs in the first inning. Both runs would come via the long-ball as Brooke Goad and Sarah Higginbotham both belted solo shots. Goad's bomb, which led off the game, was her 11th of the season and it now puts her one homerun shy of tying the single-season record. It was also the third time in the last four games that Goad has started a game with a homerun.
 
The Lady Muleriders would add two more runs in the third inning to take a 4-0 lead. The runs that inning came on RBI singles by Shelby Miller and Audrey Farfan.
 
Now staked to a 4-0 lead, Gill would hold the Lady Bisons (15-12, 7-8 GAC) to just one hit over the next three innings as she worked into the seventh with a shutout in line. The Lady Bisons' Carolyn Clayton would do away with the shutout bid by Gill in the top of the seventh, however, as she led off the inning with a homerun to center field. Gill would rebound as she got the next two batters out before issuing a two-out walk. The walk would not come back to hurt as Gill was able to induce a harmless popup back to her in the circle to end the game.
 
In the nightcap, the Lady Muleriders and Lady Bisons were tied at two-all until SAU exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a commanding 9-2 lead. In that inning, the Lady Muleriders would get five hits, including a pair of homeruns. The first of those bombs was a three-run opposite-field smash off the bat of Maddie Dow. The second was a two-run shot to centerfield by Chelsea Ivy.
 
An inning later, the Lady Muleriders, after holding the Lady Bisons scoreless in the top of the sixth, would score a run to end the game via the eight-run rule. That run was driven in by Higginbotham as she singled into left field.
 
The final two games of the series are scheduled to be played tomorrow as part of a doubleheader starting at noon at Lady Mulerider Field.