Alva Review-Courier -

MAGNOLIA, Ark. — Southern Nazarene pushed the opening game to extra innings, but fell short in a 7-5 loss to Southern Arkansas. The Muleriders went on to hold the Storm hitless in their 8-0 victory in the second game of the doubleheader Monday afternoon.

Southern Arkansas grabbed an early lead a solo home run in the first to give the Muleriders a 1-0 lead.

Southern Nazarene answered back with three runs in the fifth. Jacey James led the inning off with a walk and was moved into scoring position after Cheyenne Reynolds singled to left. Sam Smith reached on an error that allowed James to score. Kai Sanchez drew a walk to load the bases with no outs. Mahina Sauer reached on a fielder's choice to score Smith. An error allowed Reynolds to score, giving SNU a 3-0 lead.

The Muleriders came back with two runs in the fifth to knot the score up at 3-3. The score remained tied into extra innings, with the next runs coming in the tenth. The Storm retook the lead as James delivered a single up the middle that scored both Katelyn Brown and Kriston Shumaker. The two run lead, however wasn't enough to hold off Southern Arkansas as they rallied for four runs in the bottom of the tenth to give SAU a 7-5 victory in extra innings.

Katelyn Brown (3-5) took the loss after pitching a career-high 9.2 innings. Brown gave up seven runs on nine hits, while striking out five.

The Storm were held to five hits in the opener, James went 1-for-2 with two RBIs, two walks and a run scored.

In the nightcap, Southern Arkansas scored one run in the first, two more in the second, and later added five more in the fourth to make it 8-0. The bats never came alive in the series finale as SAU went on to no-hit the Storm en route to a 8-0 win.

Brooke Tate took the loss (0-6) as she gave up eight runs on eleven hits in three innings of work.