BELTON, Texas - The Howard Payne University softball team faced off against the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor on Thursday in a doubleheader that was originally scheduled to take place on Friday. However, due to weather forecasts for the weekend, the two sides agreed to move up their three-game series to Thursday-Friday. 

The Lady Jackets held strong in game one and outhit the Lady Cru, 7-6 but they couldn't get any run support and fell 5-2 in a full seven innings. Bri Davis collected her second home run of the season while Ferrah Ford and Gabrielle Roque each finished 2-3 from the plate with an RBI and a double in the loss.

Kayla Boucher hit a two-run homer past the center field fence and Shawneece Jones tripled to lead off the second game.But the Lady Cru stormed back to take the 13-4 victory in the bottom of the sixth inning with a walk off.

Game One: 
The Lady Jackets traveled to Belton with for the first of two and started Tia Campos in the circle. Campos performed admirably, holding the Lady Cru bats scoreless until the bottom of the third inning. 

A four-run bottom of the third inning gave UMHB an early lead and they would do a great job of shutting down several Howard Payne scoring rally's to escape with the 5-2 result.

The Lady Jackets forced the game into a full seven innings, thanks in large part to their defense and pitching. Campos and Roque combined to pitch the full game and HPU made UMHB earn each run they received in the outing. 

In the bottom of the seventh, trailing 5-0 the Lady Jackets would attempt to rally back. Bri Davis led off the rally by belting a home run to dead center and Ferrah Ford followed with a double to the outfield wall to score another run and HPU trailed 5-2.

UMHB was able to settle down and force the ground out to end the inning and pick up the 5-2 win in seven innings of play.
Kayla Boucher and Morgean Schultz each recorded singles in the loss.

Game Two:
Howard Payne jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead after Jones's leadoff triple and Boucher's two-run shot gave the Lady Jackets some momentum to start the contest. But a five-run bottom of the inning tipped the scales and the Lady Jacket offense went quiet over the next three innings.

Both sides exchanged a scoreless second inning before the Lady Cru were able to get on the base paths and push their lead to 8-3. They would collect two more runs in the fourth before Howard Payne would attempt a rally in the top of the fifth.

Ferrah Ford started off the inning with a single to the outfield and she would eventually score on an unearned run thanks in part to a hard hit ground ball from Tia Campos. The Lady Jackets were forced into a ground out to end the inning still trailing 10-4.

It was enough to force the game into the sixth inning but the Cru were able to get a baserunner on and record a walk-off home run to capture the 13-4 victory in six innings of play.

The Lady Jackets were able to score three runs on four hits, each hit coming from Jones, Boucher, and Ford respectively. Howard Payne used the services of three pitchers throughout the contest with Tonya Thompson, Roque and Campos all putting in time in the circle. 

The final game of the series will begin tomorrow at 2:00 PM. Links to live stats and video will be made available online at HPUSports.com.