NORFOLK, Va. – Gabby Vaughan launched a two-out walk-off grand slam to send Norfolk State to a 9-5 come-from-behind win in a nationally-televised game on ESPNU to open Saturday's doubleheader at the NSU Softball Field.
Howard bounced back with a 4-2 win in the nightcap to earn a split.
Game one lasted three hours and featured momentum swings in both directions. But after Howard scored three runs in the top of the seventh to take a 5-3 lead, the Spartans pieced together a six-run seventh inning for the ages in their first home TV game since 2008.
Denisha Megginson led off the bottom of the frame with a double. After two flyouts,
Imani Moore singled up the middle to score Megginson and cut NSU's deficit to one.
Tuli Iosefa,
Brooke Bond and
Lily Potter then walked in succession to force in Moore with the tying run.
That set the stage for Vaughan. Down 0-2 in the count, Vaughan worked it back to 2-2 before fouling off two more pitches. She then smacked Kianna Carr's 200th pitch of the game over the fence in left-center to give NSU another walk-off win.
Howard took a 2-0 lead on Natalie Davila's two-run double in the first. NSU scored its first runs in the fourth. Megginson led off the inning with a solo homer, and later in the frame, Bond hit a two-out, two-run single to give the Spartans a 3-2 lead.
The score stayed that way till the seventh. An NSU error and a walk left the door open for Howard. Camilla Navarro's two-run double gave the Bison the lead back. Kalita Dennis then singled in Navarro to put HU ahead 5-3.
Megginson and Moore had two hits apiece for NSU. Dennis and Navarro had two hits each for the Bison.
Kirsten Greene (2-1) earned the win with one inning of relief. Cam Anderson scattered three hits and three earned runs in six-plus innings, but took the no-decision.
Carr took the loss, giving up nine earned runs and walking 12 while striking out nine.
In game two, the Bison got a run early in the first on Dennis' sacrifice fly. Vaughan singled in a run in the second to tie it, but Howard scored three more in the third. Trinity Gibbs had the only RBI hit of the inning, a single, and two more runs came around on a bases-loaded walk and a bases-loaded hit batter.
The Spartans could only manage one more run off Howard starter Sydney Hixenbaugh. That came in the sixth, when Vaughan singled and pinch runner
Morgan Hatcher scored on a Bison error.
Hixenbaugh scattered seven hits and allowed one earned run in seven innings for the win.
Kennedy Cameron (0-2) was charged with the loss after giving up four runs, three earned, in 2.1 innings.
Vaughan was 3-for-3 in game two and finished 4-for-7 with five RBIs on the day. Davila had three hits in the nightcap for the Bison.
The teams play another doubleheader at 1 p.m. Sunday.
