DURANT, Okla. – Henderson State's late seventh-inning rally falls short in the series opener to Southeastern Oklahoma State 7-4. The second game of Saturday's doubleheader was pushed to Sunday due to rain.
 
The Reddies tallied ten hits in the game, led by Emylee Bittinger and Josie Golden, with two hits each. Starting pitcher Meagan Allen went 3.1 innings and would gave up seven runs on six hits. Erika Bittinger and Makenna Keeton came in for relief and pitched the final 2.2 frames of the game.
 
The Savage Storm struck first in the bottom of the first, scoring two runs on a throwing error by HSU's third baseman, which allowed SE to plate runners from second and third. The Reddies replied in the second, pulling a run back after a solo blast off the bat of Macy Hoskins to make it 2-1.
 
However, Southeastern Oklahoma State would keep a two-run lead after scoring another run in the bottom of the second. HSU replied again in the fourth with an RBI single from Golden to plate Karlye Johnston from third, who pinch-ran for Josie Copeland after a leadoff walk.  
 
Again, the Savage Strom matched Henderson in the bottom half of the fourth, this time plating four runs to stretch its lead to 7-2. Three hits and two errors led to SE stretching its lead to five runs. From there, both sides went scoreless in the fifth and sixth, but things would pick up again in the seventh.
 
HSU had a good start to the final frame, as Jodi De Hart reached on a lead-off walk, and Golden would advance her to second on a fielder's choice to place runners on first and second with no outs. Both runners moved up on the wild pitch and would score after back-to-back singles by Katelyn McMahan and Justine Burch to make it 7-4. Southeastern would get three straight outs, following the two runs on a strike-out and double play to hold off the late HSU rally.

HSU (11-15, 3-9) will look to force a rubber match in tomorrow's opening game of Sunday's doubleheader at noon from Southeastern Softball Field.