BETHANY, Okla.—The Southern Nazarene University softball team closed out the Regional Festival with a Sunday split, taking game one 9-6 over Northeastern State before falling 8-0 to Cameron University in game two.
Game 1:
Southern Nazarene overcame a 4-0 deficit to take game one against Northeastern State. The Storm exploded for six runs in the fourth inning on their way to the win.
Northeastern plated four runs through four innings to take a commanding lead, but that was short-lived. Southern Nazarene put together their best offensive inning of the young season with six runs in the bottom half of the fourth to take the lead. The scoring got started after three straight singles from Liana Heshiki, Natalie Jones, and Caitlyn Curlee (Bates). Everyone then came around to score after Hailie Fellers blasted a three-run opposite field shot that tied the game at 4 a side. The Storm then added two more runs on an RBI groundout from London Lewis and a squeeze bunt from Sydney Everhart.
The Riverhawks trimmed SNU's advantage to just 6-5 following a solo homerun, but the Storm again responded by scoring three runs in the bottom of the fifth. Emma Swearingen singled through the left side to score two runs and Hannah Morales came off the bench to bring home SNU's ninth run of the ballgame.
Northeastern would hit one more solo homerun in the sixth inning to trim SNU's lead to three runs, but that was as close as they got as the Storm took the game 9-6.
Hannah Sattler earned the win in relief, her second win of the season. She pitched 3.2 innings and struck out 4 batters in the effort. Jennifer Romero earned her first save of the season as she pitched the final two innings without allowing a run.
Game 2:
The comeback magic did not carry over into game two as Cameron ran away from Southern Nazarene with an 8-0 five inning win over the Storm.
The Aggies scored two runs in the second inning, but it was a big five run third inning that did Southern Nazarene in. Cameron saw the first six batters of the third inning reach base as SNU struggled to get out of the inning. By the end of the third, the Storm found themselves trailing 7-0.
Southern Nazarene was shut down offensively, as well. They only mustered three hits and were only able to move a runner into scoring position once during the ballgame.
Cameron scored one more time in the fourth inning as they took an 8-0 lead, carrying it through the fifth inning on their way to the run-rule victory.
After three weekends of festival play, Southern Nazarene finally begins Great American Conference play next weekend as the Storm travel to Arkadelphia for a three-game series with Henderson State. SNU swept the Reddies in their three-game set in Bethany last season. The teams will play a single game on Friday at 5:00 p.m. before a noon double-header on Saturday.
