ARKADELPHIA, Ark.  – Missouri Western Softball is 1-1 after splitting two games on the first day of its season at the Ronnie Hawkins Invitational.
 
GAME 1: MWSU 7, Harding 5
A big second inning and just enough in the sixth and seventh helped No. 16 Griffon Softball to its first win of the 2016 season.
 
The first three batters in the top of the second reached for the Griffons then Shelbie Atwell cleared the bases with a grand slam that put MWSU up 4-0. Katie Klosterman would follow Atwell's big shot with a walk and scored two batters later when Morgan Rathmann reached on an error. The two teams went scoreless for the next three innings before Harding tied it with a five-run inning of their own in the bottom of the fifth.
 
Atwell picked up her fifth RBI of the game in the sixth, singling home Megan Korgie to put MWSU up 6-5 and Paige Shifflett's RBI double in the top of the seventh gave Janie Smith another insurance run. Smith went the distance, allowing five runs, four earned, on eight hits. The senior struck out two and walked four. Atwell finished 2-2 with the five RBIs. Korgie and freshman Tayor Hamilton each went 2-4, the only other Griffons with more than one hit.
 
GAME 2: Ouachita Baptist 6, MWSU 5 (9 innings)
Ouachita Baptist came through in the clutch, scratching out a late run to force extra innings and scoring the winning run with two out in the bottom of the ninth.
 
With international tie breaker rules in place, OBU began the bottom of the ninth with a runner on second who would score the tying run two batters later after an error and a single. Shyanne Saladino retired the next two batters but a single up the middle ended the game, driving in the final run.
 
The Griffons jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first on a RBI single by Korgie that scored Sydney Washington. OBU took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the third after a run in the first and another in the third. Ouachita tied the game once again in the bottom half of the sixth on a sacrifice fly. Neither team scored in the seventh, sending the game to extra innings. Missouri Western took a 4-3 lead in the top of the eighth on Rathmann's second RBI single, this time with two out. Ouachita Baptist would tie the game yet again on a fielder's choice, sacrifice bunt in the eighth.
 
Saldino was charged with the loss, pitching 8.2 innings and allowing six runs, only one of them earned, on 10 hits. She struck out 10 and waked two. Rathmann finished 2-4 with two RBIs. Korgie was also 2-4 with one driven in and Klosterman went 2-3 in game two with a run scored.
 
Missouri Western plays two games again Sunday in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, facing Arkansas-Monticello and Harding again.