BROWNWOOD, Texas - The Howard Payne University softball team wrapped up its 2018 nonconference schedule by splitting a home series vs. Huston-Tillotson University on Tuesday afternoon. They won the first game 5-4 in eight innings but lost the second, 9-0.

Katelyn Dickerson doubled to right center field to help give the Lady Jackets the 5-4 victory over the Rams in game one. But the Howard Payne bats were unable to overcome an impressive performance from Huston-Tillotson's Celestial Gomez, who blanked the Lady Jackets over five innings to help pick up the 9-0 shutout victory in five innings.

After giving up two runs to start the day, Howard Payne's pitching staff settled in and held the Rams scoreless over the next four innings. Audrey Simpson would go on to pitch five full innings of shutout baseball while giving up just two hits and no walks. 

Katelyn Dickerson brought in the first run after Tonya Thompson led off the bottom of the first with a single to left field. Dickerson's hard-hit infield single was ruled an error but still scored Thompson before the Rams forced a pop out to end the inning with a 2-1 lead.

Howard Payne would take the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning after Thompson and Moregean Schultz both picked up walks to lead-off the inning. Dickerson loaded the bases with a single to left field and Hillary Slater tied the game by picking up another walk. A wild pitch scored Thompson and Howard Payne took a 3-2 lead into the top of the fifth. 

The Rams managed to score two runs in the top of the sixth to recapture the lead when they put runners in scoring position and brought in a run to tie it up at 3-3. Huston-Tillotson was able to score one more run before the end of the inning on a fielders choice to take the 4-3 lead.

The Lady Jackets responded with one run in the bottom of the inning with Dickerson's double to right field, scoring Moregean Schultz to make it 4-4 after six full innings of play. Both teams followed with a consecutive three-up, three-down seventh, forcing the game into extra innings.

The Lady Jackets led off the top of the eighth with Audrey Simpson taking second base and Schultz laying down a bunt to move her over to third base. Tonya Thompson followed with a walk and Katelyn Dickerson ended the game by blasting a ball to the shortstop, forcing an error and scoring Simpson to take the 5-4 result in walk-off fashion. 

Dickerson finished 3-5 from the plate with three RBI's and a double while Tonya Thompson was 1-2 with two runs scored and two walks. Moregean Schultz scored two runs and recorded three walks in an impressive lead-off performance. Howard Payne scored five runs on five hits while holding the Ram to just four runs on eight hits. 

Game two was scoreless through the first three innings of play until Huston-Tillotson reeled off nine unanswered runs, three in the fourth inning, six in the fifth to take the game 9-0 in five innings. The Lady Jackets never could get their bats going in the contest and registered just three hits in the game.

Katelyn Dickerson, Gabrielle Roque and Haley Slater each finished 1-2 from the plate with Kayla Boucher and Tonya Thompson picking up the only walks during the contest.

Howard Payne is now 3-5-2 on the season and will next face-off against East Texas Baptist University on Friday in Marshall. Friday will be a designated hitter with game one beginning at 5:00 PM. Day two will conclude with one game to round out the three-game series. Links to live stats and video can be found at HPUsports.com.