NORFOLK, Va. - The Norfolk State softball team picked up a pair of wins on Monday afternoon at home to close out the Spartan/Pirate Classic at the NSU Softball Field. The Spartans topped Morehead State 8-3 and then followed it up with a 5-1 triumph over St. Bonaventure.
 
The Spartans got a pair of solid hitting performances and collected 14 hits over the course of two games for the second day in a row. They improved to 3-6 on the year.
 
Senior Hunter Halford (1-4) scattered seven hits in seven innings of work in the second contest, allowing just one run with three strikeouts. Freshman Skylar Swain (2-1), meanwhile, gave up three earned runs with six hits in 6.2 innings of work in the first contest against MSU.
 
The Spartans benefitted from seven errors on the Eagles, as only four of the eight runs were earned. They jumped on Morehead State early, loading the bases in the first inning and getting a hit by pitch to go up 1-0.
 
After MSU got out of the jam, the Spartans then went up 3-0 in the second. Sophomore Jade Dixon walked before junior Shelby DesChamps hit her first career homer. She finished 3-for-7 on the day with three runs and those two RBI.
 
Morehead State (0-11) scored single runs in the third and fourth, but NSU also tallied three runs in the third for what was, at the time, a 6-1 lead. Sophomore Tuli Iosefa hit a two-run homer with no outs after senior Hunter Halford had led off the inning with a walk. Another run later scored when MSU committed its fourth error of the game.
 
NSU later scored two more runs in the sixth for an 8-2 lead. Back-to-back errors scored one run, and sophomore Jazzmaine Hammond's infield single plated another. MSU got one run back in the seventh for the final margin.
 
Iosefa and Hammond each had a pair of hits. Halford scored twice, and Iosefa also drive in three runs.
 
DesChamps scored a pair of runs and had two hits in the second game of the day for NSU against St. Bonaventure (0-4). Again, had an early lead. Freshman Gabby Vaughan belted a solo homer in the second, and freshman Denisha Megginson hit an RBI double and later scored for a 3-0 lead in the third.
 
The Bonnies made it 3-1 in the top of the fourth on an RBI groundout, but the Spartans added two more runs in the bottom of the frame for the final margin. Hammond doubled and later took home on a double steal with DesChamps at first, and DesChamps scored on freshman Makenna Heimann's bunt single in front of the plate.
 
Halford did the rest, as St. Bonaventure stranded eight runners on base.
 
Iosefa hit 2-for-3 in the game and 4-for-6 on the afternoon.
 
NSU will head to Charlottesville to take part in the Cavalier Classic beginning next Friday. The Spartans will face Buffalo and Delaware twice and host Virginia once during the three-day tournament.