LAKELAND, Fla. — The No. 20 Freed-Hardeman University Lady Lions split Friday afternoon against the No. 22 Southeastern (Fla.) University Fire. In the first game, FHU held onto a 1-0 victory before falling in game two 2-1 in nine innings.

GAME 1

FHU - 1
SEU - 0

Myleah Hardy connected for a two-out double to start the Lady Lions (2-1) off right in the top of the first inning, but could advance no further. Southeastern also got started early with back-to-back singles, but Katelyn Bradford settled down to record three outs and leave the Fire stranded on the corners. 

Both the Lady Lions and the Fire (2-1) would go down in order until Brinley Cousar tallied a one-out single in the top of the fifth. After Kiersten Mesler's walk put Cousar into scoring position, it was Molli
Deere's RBI single up the middle that proved to be the game-winner for FHU.

Southeastern made things interesting in the bottom of the seventh inning, loading up the bases with one out. With Chloe Winters entering to shut things down, a grounder to short saw the tying run out at the plate before Winters took care of the final out by tossing a soft grounder to first to wrap up the 1-0 victory.

Katelyn Bradford (1-0) had one strikeout in a 6 1/3 inning effort while Winters (1) earned a save.

Brinley Cousar had two hits and scored the lone run in the victory.
 

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GAME 2 (9 innings)

FHU - 2
SEU - 3

The second game of the afternoon was a nine-inning thriller with the Lady Lions (2-2) seeing victory slip from their fingers with outs in the bottom of the ninth when SEU plated a walk-off.

Alivia Eggleston got the Lady Lions going in the top of the second inning with both FHU's first homer of the year, but also her first career long ball over the left field fence. Southeastern (3-1) would then answer in the bottom of the third inning by scoring the equalizer on a wild throw.

Neither team would score again a sacrifice bunt from Myleah Hardy and a sacrifice fly from Brooklyn Jimmerson helped the international tiebreaker runner, Natalie Gilmore, to put the Lady Lions back on top 2-1.

A two-out double brought home the tying run in the bottom of the eighth. In the bottom of the ninth inning, the bases were loaded with two outs when a slow roller trickled towards the third base bag. Despite her best effort to tag the base, Jimmerson was a hair behind the runner - reaching safely as the winning run crossed the dish in the 2-1 final.

Kylee Brown (1-1) tossed a great game, going 8 2/3 innings while striking out four Fire batters.