ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – Henderson State used extra innings in the second game of the day's doubleheader to split the conference-opener against Southern Nazarene. After the Crimson Storm took game one, 5-3, the Reddies responded with a nine-inning, walk-off victory in the latter contest, 3-2.
 
Freshman Brooke Johnson was outstanding at the plate as well as in the circle as she finished off her GAC debut with a two-game total of three hits and three RBIs while also getting her first win of the season from the pitcher's spot on the back-end of the doubleheader.
 
Abbie Moore logged her second home run of the season in game number one before working three crucial walks in the day's final contest. Freshman Jordyn Holland was the hero late in game two, redeeming herself with the walk-off single that gave HSU the victory.
 
Henderson St. (2-13, 1-1) returns to Dee White Field tomorrow at 1 p.m. for the rubber match against the Crimson Storm, with hopes to take the conference-opening series.  
 
Game 1: Southern Nazarene 5, Henderson State 3
Southern Nazarene got on the board quickly in the first game of the GAC leg of the season, scoring two unearned runs to grab the early 2-0 lead. The Reddie defense was able to collect itself, holding SNU at two runs before HSU went to work in the bottom of the third.
 
Having not registered a hit up to this point, Henderson opened things with a Savannah Hughes walk before a Justin Burch single was able to get her and Hughes on with one out. Two batters and one more out later, Johnson delivered her team-high fifth double of the season to center field, scoring Hughes and Burch to tie the game at 2-2.
 
With neither team seeing a hit in the fourth frame, the Crimson Storm used three doubles in the top of the fifth to plate three runs to seize a 5-2 advantage. Moore was able to cut the deficit to two in the bottom of the sixth with a solo homerun to left center, but that was as close as HSU would get as SNU took the series-opener, 5-3.
 
Game 2: Henderson State 3, Southern Nazarene 2
Once again, Southern Nazarene opened the scoring with two runs, just an inning later this time as the top of the second inning served as the two-run at-bat. Henderson did not waste much time, however, in getting into the scoring action, as a throwing error from the Crimson Storm second baseman off a Hughes sacrifice bunt brought pinch-runner Britlyn Garrett home.
 
With the tally 2-1 in favor of SNU, Monica Monreal came to relieve Johnson in the circle momentarily in the top of the fifth. After a two-out walk loaded the bases for the Crimson Storm with two outs, left-fielder Madison Treutlein completed the third out on a dead sprint out to foul territory to get Monreal out of the jam, moving play to the bottom of the fifth.
 
With HSU unable to do much with the momentum-shifting play from Treutlein, Johnson returned to her pitcher's circle, only allowing two hits over the next two SNU at-bats, while claiming a pair of strikeouts to give Henderson a chance in the bottom of the seventh with still only one run separating the two teams.
 
While SNU was able to get the seventh-inning lead-off hitter out, Moore worked one of her three walks to get on base. After a Hughes ground-out advanced her to second, Johnson came to the plate with the chance to tie things up, and tie things up she did, sending a fast ball through the middle of the infield, scoring the game-tying run.
 
When it looked like HSU might walk it off right then and there with the score now tied, 2-2, and a Monica Monreal walk getting two Reddies on base, Jordyn Holland sent a fly ball to right field that the SNU right fielder was able to just get under to send the game to extra innings. Holland would redeem herself later in front of the home crowd.
 
Johnson continued her masterful outing since returning to the game, striking out two more Crimson Storm batters with two on in the top of the eighth and again finding her way out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the ninth to keep the score at a deadlock, 2-2, opening the door for Henderson to finish things in the second extra inning.
 
With Lexi Trejo starting things off with a single up the middle, two straight outs for SNU was able to get the second baseman to third. After intentionally walking Johnsons thanks to her 2-4 day at the plate followed by a Monreal walk, Jordyn Holland stepped up to the plate in an eerily similar situation, with two outs facing the freshman righty.
 
In an almost exact replica of her fly ball to right in the seventh inning, Holland sailed one to shallow right field, just tipping out of the glove of the diving Crimson Storm right-fielder to allow the hometown onlookers at Dee White Field to exhale, followed by jubilation as HSU won its first conference game, splitting the series-opening games, 3-2.