Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The Southern Arkansas softball team's offense was red-hot in the first inning of Friday afternoon's opening game against Henderson State as they scored nine runs, helping lift them to an impressive 12-2 win. The roles reversed some in the back-half of the doubleheader as HSU forced a split with a 12-4 win.
 
In the opener, the Lady Muleriders (10-10, 5-5 GAC) got their offense started quickly as Brooke Goad led off with a solo homerun out to the Lyons Den in right field. Four batters later, the bases were loaded with one out as Maddie Dow singled, Shelby Miller walked, and Audrey Farfan drew a hit-by-pitch. With the bases juiced, the Lady Muleriders added two runs as the Lady Reddies' (10-11, 6-4 GAC ) shortstop threw home on a grounder by Chelsea Ivy, but her throw would be errant, allowing Dow and Miller to score and Farfan and Ivy to advance an extra base, putting them both in scoring position.
 
In the next at-bat, Darian Harris singled to centerfield, scoring Farfan and Ivy, making it a 5-0 lead. A single up the middle by Taylor Guin in the next at-bat spelled the end of the day for Henderson's starter Kayla Williams as she was only able to record one out. With a new pitcher in the game, the Lady Muleriders would keep up the offense as a productive out by Courtney Hudgins moved Harris and Guin into scoring position with two outs. The two would score in the next at-bat as Goad doubled to left-centerfield. A two-run mammoth blast by Dow to left field followed and put an exclamation mark on the nine-run first inning.
 
That nine-run advantage would last until the top of the third inning when the Lady Reddies scored twice off of SAU starter Hanna Gill to make it a 9-2 game. Gill, who back in the circle for the first time in over three weeks, would have that be the only blip on her outing as she eventually pitched a complete-game, scattering five hits, walking one and striking out three.
 
In the bottom of the fourth, the Lady Muleriders would get the run-rule advantage back as they scored three runs to make it a 12-2 game. The first two of those runs came on a two-RBI double to right-centerfield by Sarah Higginbotham. The third run came in the next at-bat as Farfan singled to right field, scoring Brittany Johnson, who came on to pinch-run for Higginbotham.
 
In the top of the fifth, Gill would work around a two-out single to close out the game.
 
In the back-half of the doubleheader, things got off to a great start once more as the Lady Muleriders scored three runs to take a 3-0 lead. Just as in the opener, the run-scoring for SAU got started in a big way as Goad left the yard to right-centerfield for a leadoff bomb. A RBI double by Farfan and a RBI single by Ivy accounted for the other two runs that frame.
 
The Lady Reddies would answer back in the top of the second inning as they scored three runs themselves to knot the game at three-all. Unfortunately, the runs would keep coming for the Lady Reddies as they scored nine more runs over the next three innings to push their run total to 12.
 
A solo homerun that hit the right field foul pole by Darian Harris in bottom of the fourth would be the Lady Muleriders only additional run in the game as they fell to the Lady Reddies 12-4, forcing the doubleheader split.
 
The two teams will meet back at Lady Mulerider Field on Saturday afternoon for another doubleheader to close out the series. Saturday's twin-bill is scheduled for a first-pitch time of noon.