MARSHALL, Texas - The Lady Jackets of Howard Payne University opened up conference play with a doubleheader vs. East Texas Baptist University on Sunday evening. They were held to just one run on the day while dropping the set, 14-1 and 10-0.

The contest had been rescheduled to take place on Sunday and Monday for weather purposes, and despite the extra time, Howard Payne was without the services of some key players. East Texas Baptist, meanwhile, is coming off of an impressive run to the 2017 NCAA DIII Super Regionals.

In the first game of the doubleheader, the Tigers jumped out early, using a six-run bottom of the first inning to overcome an RBI double from Katelyn Dickerson in the top of the inning. They went on to score eight unanswered runs over the next two innings while blanking the Lady Jackets offensively to pick up the 14-1 win.

Tia Campos registered the loss, going for 1.1 innings but the Lady Jackets used the services of three pitchers in the game. Audrey Simpson and Kendra Evans each recorded one inning for the Jackets during the loss. 

Morgean Schultz led off the game by working the count and taking a walk. She was moved over by a nice sacrifice bunt from Shawneece Jones. Katelyn Dickerson then stepped to the plate and smoked a ball down the right-field line to score Schultz and give Howard Payne the early lead.

East Texas Baptist was led by Jordan Anderson who delivered four innings of solid time in the circle before handing the ball over to her closer in the fifth inning.

Game two saw some more impressive pitching from the Tigers.  Despite not being able to move runners across the plate, the Lady Jackets hung tough through five full innings. They avoided the seven-run rule by working counts and great fielding and headed into the bottom of the sixth trailing, 6-0. 

East Texas Baptist used a hit-by-pitch to get on base and then some good baserunning put them in scoring position. The Tigers managed to get one run across the board before a walk-off three-run home run to centerfield made it 10-0. The Tigers took the game and the doubleheader in six innings.

Katelyn Dickerson, Kayla Boucher and Ferrah Ford each recorded hits in the contest and Howard Payne used the services of Kendra Evans and Audrey Simpson in the circle.

The Tigers were led by pitcher Rocki Tello who pitched six scoreless innings while fighting off multiple rally attempts. 

The Lady Jackets will return to action tomorrow with another contest at East Texas Baptist. Tomorrow will be one game at 2:00 PM and it will wrap up the three-game conference series. Links to live video and stats can be found at HPUSports.com.