BROWNWOOD, Texas -  McMurry University split its American Southwest Conference doubleheader at Howard Payne University, losing the opener, 7-5, and bouncing back with vengeance in the second game, 10-2, at Lady Jackets Field. The two teams will play the rubber game of the series on Saturday at Noon.
 
In game one, the War Hawks found themselves down 2-0 after the first innings. However, the team used a three-run rally – with two out - in the third to take the lead, thanks to four-consecutive hits. Ashley McClellan started the parade with a double to left-centerfield, followed by a Rachel Ripley double to the same location, to drive home McClellan. Nina Hernandez then laid down a bunt single and Ripley came all the way around to score. Hernandez stole second and, eventually, crossed the plate on a Kayla Otis single through the left side of the infield.
 
The Lady Jackets responded with three runs of their own off McM starter Cheyenne West in the bottom of the fourth. West would finish the inning, allowing eight hits and five earned runs in her 4.0 innings of work.
 
In the top of the fifth, however, the McM batters got West off the hook in the decision, rallying for two runs.  With two out, Hernandez was safe on an error in centerfield and, with Otis at the plate, stole second. Otis then uncorked her fourth home run of the season, with the two-run blast making it 5-5.
 
Kamwren Jackson took over in the circle for the War Hawks, but was greeted rudely. HPU laid down a bunt single, followed by a Jackson walk, sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly to tally the go-ahead run, 6-5. The Lady Jackets added an insurance run in the sixth after a leadoff triple and squeeze bunt to make it 7-5.
 
Otis and Hernandez both went 2-for-4 in the 9-hit attack in the first game. Hernandez scored twice, while Otis had a run and three runs batted in.
 
In the second game, Jackson (4-11) responded with an outstanding complete-game win for McM head coach David McNally's team.  Jackson scattered five hits and permitted just the two runs, with her only extra-base hit allowed a fourth inning solo homer. She had one strikeout and one walk.
 
Jackson got all the offense she would need in the War Hawks' very first at-bats of the game, plating three runs in the top of the first. The highlights of the frame were and RBI single from Hernandez and run-scoring double from Avery McDaniel.
 
In the second, Lexi De La Cruz led off with a double and eventually scored on McClellan's ground out.  Ripley drove in McClellan with her team-best sixth double of the year. McClellan scored again in the fourth, thanks to a Hernandez single to right.  Three-consecutive singles in the fifth – by McDaniel, Adrienne Nairn and De La Cruz – would produce two more runs in the fifth.
 
In the sixth, McClellan reached on an error at third and scored on a Ripley triple, her team-leading third of 2018. Ripley came home on a ground out to second by Hernandez.
 
McM out-hit the Lady Jackets by an impressive 15-5 margin, led by Ripley and McDaniel, who both went 3-for-4 in the game. Ripley scored twice and had two RBI. McDaniel added a run and RBI, as well.
 
Also collecting multiple hits for then War Hawks were Hernandez (2-for-4), De La Cruz (2-for-3) and Krysta Winegeart (2-for-3).  Hernandez had a run and three runs batted in.
 
McClellan scored three times and drove in a run, going 1-for-4. On the year, McClellan has 27 runs scored.