WEATHERFORD, Okla. – SWOSU Softball earned two hard-fought, one-run victories over Henderson State on Saturday, which sandwiched the Senior Day festivities for 10 Bulldog seniors who were playing their final home series.
 
The wins improve the Bulldogs to 16-26 (10-22 GAC) on the year with 10 games remaining in the regular season. SWOSU will be back at home on Tuesday afternoon for their annual 'Pack the Park' doubleheader against Northwestern Oklahoma State.
 
SWOSU 6, Henderson State 5
Box Score
 
The Bulldogs scored in four of the first five innings, including three in the first, to build a 6-4 lead and they then held off the Reddies in the seventh for the victory. After SWOSU took a 3-1 lead in the first, HSU tied the game in the second and took a 4-3 lead in the top of the third, to which the Bulldogs answered on an RBI single from Alex Wilson in the bottom of the third.
 
Taya Haney broke the 4-all tie in the fourth, leading off the inning with a no-doubt solo home run over the left center fence, putting her team up 5-4 at that point. The Bulldogs then added an insurance run on an RBI single off the bat of Bailey King that made it 6-4 in the fifth. Henderson State had two hits in the top of the seventh, pushing one run across before Haney forced a groundout to end the game with runners at the corners.
 
Haney was strong at the plate – finishing 2-for-3 an RBI and two runs scored – and in the circle, where she tossed a complete game and earned the victory, improving to 4-10 on the year.
 
Abigail Schade led the Bulldogs offensively with a 3-for-3 effort while Haney, Samantha Householder and Bailey King each had two hits in the game.
 
SWOSU 10, Henderson State 9
Box Score
 
The series finale was another back-and-forth contest, which saw the Bulldogs score five runs in the bottom of the sixth to take the lead before holding off a seventh-inning rally from the Reddies to win the game 10-9 to split the series.
 
SWOSU scored twice in the first and second innings, but found themselves trailing 5-4 after three complete and 7-5 heading to the bottom of the sixth inning. In the sixth, SWOSU got back-to-back singles from Miranda McDonald and Cheyenne Trotter before a pair of errors allowed the next two Bulldogs to reach base while two runs scored to tie the game. Tori Hawk stepped up to the plate in a tie game and slammed a double to straight away center, scoring Abigail Schade and Taya Haney to return the lead to SWOSU. After another HSU error allowed Hawk to score, the Bulldogs led 10-7 and needed just three more outs for the victory.
 
Those final three outs would not come easy for the Bulldogs as Henderson State loaded the bases with no outs and got an RBI single to score one run before a sacrifice fly made it a one-run game with one out. Rileigh Ricken then forced an infield groundout and a pop up to shortstop to finish out the contest.
 
Abigail Schade and Miranda McDonald led the way with three hits apiece while Taya Haney had another two-hit game and Tori Hawk was 1-for-3 with three RBI. Rileigh Ricken (2-7) entered in relief in the third inning and threw the final 4.1 innings to pick up the victory.