ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — Henderson State used a two-run home run from Courtney Warren, and a complete game gem in the circle from Sydney Bonner, to fight past Southern Nazarene 3-1 in game one on Friday and earn a split in the first doubleheader of the Great American Conference series.

The two teams return to action tomorrow for the second doubleheader at 12 p.m. Senior Day events will also take place on Saturday at Dee White Field, with the festivities set to begin at 11:30 a.m.

GAME ONE: Henderson State 3, Southern Nazarene 1
Courtney Warren's home run in the second inning gave the Reddies a spark, and Sydney Bonner kept the Crimson Storm at bay, as Henderson defeated SNU 3-1 in the first contest of the day.

After a scoreless inning and a half, Warren got the Reddies out in front with an unconventional home run. With Alexia Lopez standing on first, Warren drove a ball deep into right field. The SNU right fielder chased it all the way to the top of the wall, but as she tried to make a play on it, the ball careened off of her glove and over the fence. The fortunate bounce gave Henderson its first hit of the game and a 2-0 lead.

SNU took advantage of an error to cut the deficit down to 2-1 in the sixth inning, but the Reddies responded with an insurance run in the bottom half, as Bethany Allen flied out to score Olivia Trapp from third base and make it 3-1. Bonner took over from there, preserving the lead in the seventh to give Henderson the 3-1 win. She allowed just one Crimson Storm hit in the final three innings of action.

The Reddies had just four hits in the game, but it proved to be enough, with the two-run blast from Warren providing the difference. Trapp, Kailey Reese and Lindsey Williams tallied the other three hits for HSU. Bonner picked up her 12th win of the season by going all seven innings, and allowing just one unearned run on five hits.

GAME TWO: Southern Nazarene 8, Henderson State 6
The Reddies racked up 11 hits and erased an early four-run deficit, but committed three costly errors, which led to five unearned runs for SNU, as the Crimson Storm got past Henderson 8-6 to escape with a split on day one.

Three of SNU's five unearned runs came in the first inning, when the Crimson Storm took advantage of two errors to jump out to a 4-0 lead in a matter of seconds.

Henderson came roaring back, and after plating a run in the bottom half of the first, the Reddies got three in third. A single from Bethany Allen and a double from Madie Green made it 4-2, and then the next batter, Alexia Lopez, tied things up, as she blasted a no-doubt home run over the left field fence to make it 4-4.

The Crimson Storm answered in the fourth, when another error led to two more runs and pushed SNU back in front 6-4, and again in the sixth, when a two RBI double helped them double-up the Reddies, 8-4. Henderson tried to claw back, and scored twice in the bottom of the seventh, but two stranded base runners in each of the final two frames cost HSU, as it fell to SNU, 8-6.

Lopez, Green and Lindsey Williams each had two hits in the game for the Reddies. Lopez and Green combined for five RBIs on the day.