BROWNWOOD, Texas - A late two-run fifth inning gave the University of Texas at Dallas softball team a 4-3 come from behind victory over the Howard Payne University softball team on Friday afternoon.

The two sides met for the Lady Jackets first ASC home contest of the season, a doubleheader and despite an impressive performance from Howard Payne, the Comets were able to sweep the day with 4-3 and 5-0 victories.

The Lady Jacket pitching staff combined to give up just nine runs on 20 hits while the offense played smart softball to get two runs across the board via bunts. The Comets leaned on their pitching down the stretch to help deliver the two-game sweep.

Game one started out as a defensive affair. Both sides exchanged scoreless innings through the games first two frames before UT-Dallas rallied to score two runs in the top of the third. Howard Payne would respond by holding UT-Dallas scoreless while rallying to bring in two runs and tie the game up at 2-2 in the fourth.

A Shawneece Jones single up the middle scored Tonya Thompson and kept the bases loaded for Gabrielle Roque who laid down a bunt to bring in Katelyn Dickerson and tie it all up. However, the Comets answered back by scoring two more runs in the fifth to go up, 4-2.

Katelyn Dickerson tried to get a late rally going in the bottom of the fifth by scoring Audrey Simpson on a single to left field to make it 4-3. The UT-Dallas pitching staff would settle in and close out the final two innings to take the 4-3 victory in game one.

Audrey Simpson turned in a solid performance in the circle for the Lady Jackets, going for five innings before handing the ball off to Kendra Evans in the sixth. Tonya Thompson finished 2-4 from the plate with one run scored and Katelyn Dickerson, Shawneece Jones and Audrey Simpson all recorded RBI's in the game.

Game two started out similarly to the first with three scoreless innings between the to sides to start. The Lady Jackets used a trio of pitchers in the game but mostly relied on the services of Tia Campos. Campos took over for Kendra Evans in the third and got the Lady Jackets out of a runners in scoring position pinch by forcing two pop-ups to end the inning.

But a five-run fourth inning from the Comets broke open the game and turned what appeared to be a defensive slugfest into a 5-0 UT-Dallas victory. Katelyn Dickerson, Tonya Thompson and Audrey Simpson each registered hits in the game and Gabrielle Roque made an appearance as a reliever in the seventh.

The Lady Jackets will play the third and final game of their series vs. the University of Texas at Dallas tomorrow at 12:00 PM. Those that cannot make the trip to Lady Jacket field can find the live video at www.facebook.com/hpusports and live stats will be available on HPUSports.com.