CLARKSVILLE, Arkansas - Due to weather concerns, the Howard Payne University softball team was forced to play all three games of their ASC series vs. the University of the Ozarks in one day on Friday. The Lady Jackets dropped all three games (0-10, 5-14 and 1-9) during the set to fall to 3-14-2 on the season.

Game One:

The first game started off as a defensive battle as both sides went scoreless through 2.5 innings. The Eagles offense caught a spark in the bottom of the third, going for four runs to pull out to an early lead. The game then settled back down as two more scoreless innings were exchanged before Ozarks scored six more runs in the sixth, to deliver a 10-0 result in walk-off fashion.

Howard Payne recorded seven hits to the Ozarks nine but each scoring rally was met with great team defense from the Eagles. The Lady Jackets would end up leaving a total of eight runners on base in the contest while committing five errors to help the Ozarks pick up their first win of the season.

Tonya Thompson and Shawneece Jones each went 2-3 from the plate and Kendra Evans pitched 2.2 innings of scoreless softball in the loss. Haley Slater, Audrey Simpson, and Katelyn Dickerson each recorded singles.

Game Two:

Head Coach Jose Mata tinkered with his batting order a bit to start the contest and it paid off in the first inning when Katelyn Dickerson singled with one out and scored after a Shawneece Jones fly to right filed resulted in an error. 

Howard Payne would head to the bottom of the inning up 1-0 with Audrey Simpson starting in the circle but the Ozarks were able to round the bases five times to go up 5-1 after one inning of play. They would hold the Lady Jackets scoreless in the top of the second while going for two more runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 7-1 lead into the third.

Tonya Thompson tried to spark a comeback in the third by leading off the inning with a double to the left field fence. Dickerson would follow with a single of her own and HPu would have two runners on base when Haley Slater stepped to the plate. Slater found a pitch in the zone and blasted it past the outfield wall to score Dickerson and Thompson and cut into the Eagle's lead, 7-4.

However, Ozarks responded by scoring seven runs in the bottom of the third to pull out to a 14-4 lead. Audrey Simpson would lead off the bottom of the inning with a home run of her own as the Lady Jackets attempted to claw their way back into the contest.

They loaded all the bases for Audrey Simpson to start the fifth inning and she worked a deep count before being forced into a popout to end the top of the inning and the game with Ozarks taking the 14-5 win after five innings.

Kayla Boucher, Audrey Simpson, and Katelyn Dickerson each finished 2-3 from behind the plate and Haley Slater had three RBI. Tonya Thompson doubled and went 1-2 with a run scored.

Game Three:

The Ozarks scored eight runs to start the third set before both sides settled own for a scoreless third inning. They did it by working the count and loading the bases and then leaned on their pitching duo to deliver the 9-1 win in six innings.

The Howard Payne offense started to click in the top of the fourth when Haley Slater led off the inning by drawing a walk. After Bri Davis was hit by a pitch, Audrey Simpson delivered a shot to the left-center wall that scored Davis. But the Eagles' pitching staff adjusted and stopped the rally before it could get do any significant damage. 

Tia Campos performed admirably in the circle for the Lady Jackets but the six-run first inning proved too difficult to overcome. The Ozarks would tack on one more run in the sixth to make it 9-1, giving them victory in six innings.

Morgean Schultz, Gabrielle Roque, Katelyn Dickerson, and Audrey Simpson all had singles in the loss. 

Howard Payne will now return home to play host to LeTourneau University for a three-game series beginning on March 16th. The first day will be a DH with games starting at 1:00 and 3:00 PM and the third game will get wrapped up on Saturday at noon.