SEARCY, ARKANSAS - Northwestern Oklahoma State softball opened a three game series against Harding Saturday afternoon with a doubleheader. Harding took the first game behind a 5-1 victory before opening a 3-0 lead and closing out a 6-0 win in game two of the day.

GAME ONE:

Macy Spearman led the Ranger offense going three for four in the game.  

Rangers had an opportunity to get on the board first after a leadoff single by Spearman and a one out single by Howell but Harding was able to escape with no damage done. Hannah Howell answered with a scoreless inning as well working around a second and third situation.

Northwestern went down in order in the second inning before Harding scored the game's first two runs. Inning started with a Ranger error before a sacrifice bunt and a single pushed across the game's first run. After two stolen bases it was second and third as a sacrifice bunt pushed across the game's second run for a 2-0 Harding lead through two innings.

After the Rangers went down in order Harding added two more runs as a leadoff single and a hit by pitch had runners on first and second before a double by Cabana made the game 4-0.

In the fourth inning Howell and Laney Anderson started the inning with back to back singles but Harding forced three straight outs to keep the game at 4-0 through four innings of play.

The Ranger offense struck in the fifth inning as Avery Clark led off with a single before a sacrifice bunt pushed her to second. An Abby DeTar double to left field drove in the Rangers run now trailing 4-1.

Harding answered back though with two doubles to start the inning by Harris and Curry to take a 5-1 lead. The score remained 5-1 into the seventh inning. Northwestern started the final inning with a double from Abby Johnson and a single by Macy Spearman. However the Bisons got three straight outs from there to close out the 5-1 victory over the Rangers in the opening game of the series.

GAME TWO:

Rangers had a base runner in the first as Howell reached on an error but was unable to score. Ireland Caro matched the scoreless top half with throwing one in the bottom of the inning after allowing a one out single.

Both teams went down in order in the second inning as Caro had two groundouts and a fly out. It was third inning Harding struck first after a one out double and single and a sacrifice fly gave the game's first run but Caro escaped further damage as the Rangers trailed 1-0 after the third inning.

Howell tried to get things started in the fourth inning with a leadoff single but was unable to score after three straight outs to follow. Harding struck again in the fourth inning as a leadoff single and a stolen base led to an RBI single for a 2-0 lead. Three batters later another single pushed their lead to 3-0.

The fifth inning Rangers added two more hits but were not able to cross the plate as the score remained 3-0. In the bottom of the 5th inning Curry hit a home run to extend the lead to 4-0 before a couple of singles pushed the deficit to five.

Jones hit a solo home run in the sixth inning for Harding to give the game its final score at 6-0 as the win gave Harding the series win. 

The Rangers will close out the series Sunday afternoon at 1:00 PM for the final game of the three game series between the two teams.