Morgan Rodgers and Tiphani Moon delivered the game-winning hits as the Arkansas Tech Golden Suns swept a Gulf South Conference softball doubleheader from the Southern Arkansas Lady Muleriders at the Chartwells Women’s Sports Complex in Russellville on Wednesday.
Arkansas Tech (17-13 overall, 7-5 GSC) won 2-1 and 5-3 on Wednesday to complete a 3-of-4 series victory. The Golden Suns and the Lady Muleriders (8-19, 4-8) split a doubleheader on Tuesday. All four games in the series went to extra innings.
Game one on Wednesday was tied 1-1 after the seventh and final scheduled inning.
Golden Suns pitcher Chelsea Evanoff held SAU scoreless in the top of the eighth, and Tech’s Amy Kilpatrick and Natalie Magie singled to put runners at first and second base in the bottom of the eighth.
That was when Rodgers came through with a single to left field that drove in Kilpatrick with the winning run.
Kilpatrick, Magie, Moon and Roxie Palacios had two hits apiece in the game one victory.
Evanoff allowed just one run on four hits while striking out five over eight innings.
Game two on Wednesday might have been the first of the series to end in regulation were it not for the defensive heroics of Dana Stephenson.
The Tech center fielder threw Courtney Johnson out at home plate for the third out in the top of the seventh inning to preserve a 3-3 tie.
The score remained the same until the bottom of the eighth. After a walk to Jessica Fields, Moon lifted her second home run of the game and her ninth of the season over the left field fence to give the Suns a 5-3 victory.
Moon has 26 career home runs, the most in Arkansas Tech softball history. Her nine home runs this season are one away from tying the single-season school record of 10 home runs that she set in 2009.
Moon was 3-for-5 with two home runs and four RBIs in game two on Wednesday. Palacios and Magie had two hits apiece in the win.
Evanoff (8-6) pitched one and two-thirds innings of scoreless relief to earn her second victory of the day in the circle.
The Golden Suns will visit Henderson State for a four-game series in Arkadelphia on Saturday and Sunday.
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