ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – Griffon Softball will come home from the Ronnie Hawkins Invitational 2-2 after another split on day two. The No. 16 Griffons lost game one 9-6 to Arkansas-Monticello and defeated Harding for the second time in two days, 4-1, in game two.
 
Game 1: Arkansas-Monticello 9, #16 MWSU 6
Two, four-run innings by Arkansas-Monticello doomed Janie Smith and the Griffons in a 9-6 loss to open day two at the Ronni Hawkins Invitational.
 
UAM chipped away at Smith for four in the top of the third and used a grand slam to add four more in the fifth, scoring all but one of its runs in those two innings. Smith would surrender another run, her ninth earned, in the seventh on an RBI single. The senior fell to 1-1 on the season, allowing 11 hits, striking out four and walking two in seven innings of work.
 
Freshman Taylor Hamilton drove in two of the Griffon runs, including her first home run as a Griffon in the third. She put MWSU up 1-0 in the first with a sacrifice fly to center. Shelbie Atwell made it 3-0 Missouri Western in the first with a 2-RBI double to left. Kailey Green's RBI-double and Paige Shifflett's RBI-single in the sixth pulled the Griffons within two, but that would be the end of the scoring for Missouri Western in the game.
 
Shifflett and Atwell both finished the game 2-4 at the plate. Atwell drove in two and Shifflett added an RBI and a run scored.
 
Game 2: #16 MWSU 4, Harding 1
The Griffons used a little small ball to scratch out four runs and Shyanne Saladino held off a rally attempt by Harding for Missouri Western's second win over Harding in two days.
 
Neither team scored through the first three innings, then the Griffons went up 2-0 in the fourth on a sacrifice bunt, RBI by Shifflett and an RBI-single from Hamilton. Green added an RBI-single in the top of the seventh and Megan Korgie followed Green's RBI with one of her own on a bunt single.
 
With two down in the bottom of the seventh, Harding had the tying run at the plate with runners on second and third but Saladino got the batter to strike out looking to end the game. Saladino finished with five strikeouts, allowing just one unearned run on six hits and a walk to move to 1-1 on the year.
 
No Griffon finished with more than one hit and Katie Klosterman's double in the seventh was the team's only extra-base hit.
 
Missouri Western will see Harding again next weekend when it plays at the Arkansas-Monticello 8-State Classic in Bentonville, Arkansas. The Griffons will play six games in three days beginning on Friday, Feb. 12.