ABILENE, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' softball team won two games against the Concordia Tornados on Friday night in American Southwest Conference play fueled by a big day at the plate at Ellis Field.

The Cowgirls came back to win 9-8 in game one with some final-inning theatrics and took game two handedly 8-0 over the Tornados.

The Tornados got up 5-0 after two innings of game one before the Cowgirl bats woke up. Peyton Newman doubled one over the fence to drive in a run and later came around to score on an error to make it 5-2 Concordia in the third.

The Tornados had another run before Haley Henson went all the way home from first after a sac play from Sarah Polanco and a wild throw to make it 6-3. Faith Fernandez roped one to the wall for a double to score two more and Newman drove her in to make it a 6-6 ballgame in the fourth.

Concordia answered with two more runs, but Newman continued her incredible day with two more RBIs on a single to tie the game at 8-8 in the sixth.

With a tie ballgame, Haley Henson stepped up to the plate to leadoff the bottom of the seventh for the Cowgirls. Henson swung on the first pitch and rocketed her first career homerun out of center for a walk-off Cowgirl win 9-8 in game one.

Newman led all hitters with four hits in four at-bats and four RBIs with two doubles. Fernandez had two hits with a double and two RBIs and Henson had two hits with the game-winning solo homerun.

Haven Williams started for the Cowgirls with three strikeouts in two innings with five runs allowed on five hits. Aubrianna Salazar came in for four innings and allowed three runs on four hits with a career high 11 Ks. Kylie Ruiz got the benefit of the walk-off win with a clean inning and a strikeout to boot.

The Cowgirls made short work of the Tornados in game two after a long first game with an 8-0 shutout in five innings. Kaylen Washington pitched a gem with two hits and two strikeouts in the five innings with the win.

Mason McCord hit an RBI double to start the scoring and Karis Hessert brought her in to score on a double of her own. Fernandez drove in a run on a long sac fly to make it 3-0 Cowgirls after three.

McCord launched a homerun of her own in the fifth for HSU and Newman got another RBI on the day to push it to 5-0.

Henson doubled to drive in Newman for a 6-0 Cowgirl lead and Salazar finished off the night with a bang on a two-run bomb for a run-rule victory 8-0 in the fifth inning.

Polanco, McCord, Hessert, and Henson each had two hits in the game and McCord and Salazar added two RBIs apiece for the team lead.

The Cowgirls improve to 26-10 and 17-9 in the ASC with the series ending tomorrow at 12 noon. Make sure to get to the ballpark early to join us for Cowgirl Senior Day with the presentation beginning Saturday at 11:45 a.m. at Ellis Field.

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