Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Senior Day Photo Gallery

NORFOLK, Va. – Hampton's fast start led to a game 1 win  over the Norfolk State softball team, but the Spartans held on for a victory in the second contest to split a MEAC doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at the NSU Softball Field.
 
Hampton scored 10 runs in the first three innings of the first game on the way to an 11-4 victory. NSU, celebrating its Senior Day, got its offense going early in the second contest. The Spartans then scored the eventual game-winning run in the sixth inning to defeat the Pirates, 7-6.
 
The winner of Sunday's rubber game will earn the No. 2 seed in the MEAC North heading into the conference tournament in a week and a half. Hampton (11-6) currently sits a half game ahead of Norfolk State (10-6) in the standings. The Spartans still have a make-up game left with Morgan State next weekend.
 
NSU ran its overall record to 16-23 after Saturday's split, while the Pirates bumped their overall mark this year to 19-25.
 
The two teams eventually found themselves tied at 6-6 in game 2 after the Pirates scored a pair of runs in the top of the fourth. NSU was able to push across the game-winning run in the sixth.
 
Freshman Kylee Lopez doubled to lead off the inning and went to third on a sac bunt. Senior Heather Dunning lofted a fly ball down the first base line that popped in and out of the glove of right fielder Kayla DeSchepper, allowing Lopez to score. The Spartans then left runners on second and third, and Hampton threatened in the seventh, getting the tying run on third with no outs.
 
Spartan starter Marissa Marrero (8-11) got a strikeout, foul out and a grounder to short to preserve the victory.
 
Junior Kayla McNair helped NSU get on the board early after the Pirates had done so in game 1. With one out and runners on first and second in the first inning, McNair deposited a 1-1 pitch over the fence in left center to stake the Spartans to an early lead with her first homer of the year. After sophomore Megan Przeslawski slid into second with a double with two outs, freshman Stephanie Davenport poked a base hit to center for a 4-0 advantage.
 
Hampton, though, used four hits to manufacture three runs in the top of the second to cut the Spartan lead to 4-3. Jada Fields tied the game at 4-4 with an RBI double in the third, but the Spartans took the lead right back in the bottom of the frame. McNair walked with one out and scored when senior Megan Dunning lined her third home run of the year over the left field fence.
 
The Pirates tied it up again in the top of the fourth, using a pair of RBI hits by Diamond Ponds and Danielle Budden to make it 6-6.
 
McNair finished 1-for-2 with two runs and three RBI. She also walked a total of five times over the course of the day. Megan Dunning, meanwhile, drove in two runs in the first game and two more in the second. Lopez hit a pair of doubles in the second game and was one of four Spartans to have two hits on the day.
 
Hampton struck early and often in game 1. A walk, bunt single and error loaded the bases in the first inning, and another walk and a two-run single by Sarah Kollas made it 3-0.
 
Senior Whitney Williams responded with a solo homer in the bottom of the frame, her sixth of the season, a blast over a generator beyond the right center field fence. It put her just one home run behind the all-time school record of 22.
 
The Pirates then led off the second with three straight singles to again load the bases with no outs. One run later scored on a line drive out to right field, the second out of the inning. But Fields and Kollas followed with RBI hits, though, to extend the Pirates' lead to 7-1.
 
Hope Sobelewski hit a three-run homer to left center in the third to make it 10-1. NSU, needing two runs to keep the game from ending on the eight-run rule, scored three in the bottom of the fifth. After Lopez reached on an error, junior Devon Bitler dropped a single into shallow left field to score the first run. A single and a walk loaded the bases, and then with two outs Megan Dunning lined a single to center field to plate both Bitler and Heather Dunning and make it 10-4.
 
Allie Hotetz added a solo homer in the sixth for the final scoring. In the circle, she pitched all seven innings and allowed four hits and four runs, one earned, with seven strikeouts. Kollas, meanwhile, drove in four runs to lead the Pirate offense.
 
Hotetz (11-13) suffered the loss in game 2 after relieving Fields and giving up the run in the sixth.
 
NSU had 12 hits on the day and also reached base 10 times via the walk.
 
The two teams finish out the series Sunday at noon.