ROCKWALL, Texas – Despite a midweek change of venue due to potential washed-out conditions that moved a previously scheduled GAC home-opening series in Magnolia, Arkansas, to a neutral site in Rockwall, Texas, the Southern Arkansas Lady Mulerider softball team banged out a combined 25 hits and 17 runs in 6-3 and 11-2 doubleheader victories over Northwestern Oklahoma State on Friday evening at Campbell Complex on the campus of Rockwall High School.
 
Solid pitching set the stage for the Lady Muleriders (8-4, 2-0 GAC) as they received a pair of complete games from Chancy Williams and Miranda Cuff, respectively. Williams went the full seven innings, scattering five hits to pick up her third win of the year. Cuff worked through five innings in the second game run-rule affair, allowing seven hits to improve to 3-1 on the young season.
 
Southern Arkansas answered a NWOSU two-out solo homer in the top half of the first with a single run in the bottom frame. A pair of former Rockwall High School Lady Jackets helped SAU plate their first run as Audrey Farfan doubled home Ashton Atwell, who reached on double to right center, to tie the game at 1.
 
Williams would work around a leadoff walk in the second inning and a leadoff single in the third inning, before the Lady Rangers scratched two runs in the fourth. An RBI double and an error that allowed the ensuing batter to reach gave Northwestern Oklahoma a 3-1 lead.
 
But the Lady Muleriders would answer in the home half of the fourth to take a 5-3 lead. Leigha Doyle singled up the middle to lead off the inning and with two outs, Courtney Hudgins walked. Darian Harris followed with an infield single to load the bases and Maddie Dow was hit-by-pitch to bring home Doyle.
 
Atwell delivered with a single through the right side that scored both Hudgins and Harris and a wild pitch scored Dow's pinch runner, Sydney Johnson to end the two-out run scoring in the 4^th inning.
 
The Lady Rangers threatened in the fifth and sixth innings with runners at second and third, but each time Williams worked out of the jam to preserve the two run advantage.
 
A bases-loaded RBI single from Sarah Higginbotham plated the final run for SAU in the sixth as Williams retired the side in the 7^th for the conference-opening win.
 
Harris, Atwell and Doyle all collected a pair of hits with Atwell driving in a team-high two runs.
 
In the second game, Southern Arkansas pushed across at least one run in every inning including three in the first and six in the second.
 
An Atwell three-run bomb in the first inning gave Cuff all the run support she would need. NWOSU answered with a run in the top half of the second, before SAU tacked on six runs off of four singles and an error to take a 9-1 lead into the third.
 
Cuff allowed three singles that scored a run to start the third but the sophomore limited the damage the rest of the way out, including a 1-2-3 fifth to pick up the win.
 
Farfan tallied a sac-fly in the third and Harris registered an RBI single in the fourth to round out scoring for the Lady Muleriders.
Dow and Higginbotham both had a game-high three hits and Dow scored three runs, while Atwell concluded her day with another multi-hit game that included three RBIs and two runs scored. Chelsea Ivy scored twice.
 
Southern Arkansas concludes the GAC series with a doubleheader on Saturday, February 21^st, beginning at 11 p.m.