Courtesy of Norfolk State Athletic Communications

NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk State softball team earned a split of its two games on the second day of the NSU-Hampton Classic. The three-day event is taking place on the NSU Softball Field. The Spartans dropped the first game of the day to Hampton, 4-1, before rebounding for a 6-4 afternoon cap win over Hartford.

Both NSU and HU held each scoreless through the first two innings of the first game before the Spartans broke through in the bottom of the third. Kenna Higa opened the frame with a double down the left field line. Morgan Johnson then used a sacrifice bunt to get Higa over to third before Lily Potter hit a single through the left side that scored Higa, giving the Spartans the 1-0 lead.
 
The lead was only for a short time as the Lady Pirates used a double by CeeCee Richardson scored a run tying up the game a one run apiece. It then became a defensive effort from both dugouts as both the fifth and sixth innings were scoreless.

In the top of the seventh, HU took advantage of a hit batter and a wild pitch en route to scoring three runs and taking a 4-1 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh. The Spartans went three up, three down falling by the 4-1 margin.
 
After having a game break, NSU came out hot in its second game of the day against Hartford. The Spartans used stretch of five-straight hits beginning with a single by Imani Moore, who was followed up with a double by Gabby Vaughan. Tuli Iosefa hit a single up the middle, pushing Vaughan over to third. Higa had her second hit of the day down the left field line advancing Iosefa to second and scoring Vaughan.
 
After Rylie Gilbreath singled through the left side, loading the bases, the Hawks committed a fielding error that scored both Higa and Iosefa, giving the Spartans the 4-0 lead. NSU pushed the lead to six with a run in both the second and third innings. In the second, another Hartford error scored Alison Guckin from third while Yrral Davis scored in the third inning off a Moore single to left field.
 
After neither team scored in the fourth, the Hawks pushed across four runs in the fifth to pull within two. Hartford would open the sixth with a double before NSU sent the next sixth Hawks batters down in order to get the win 6-4.