The Hillsdale College softball team found itself on both sides of a late inning comeback in its final day in Texas on Sunday, splitting a pair of contests against Northeastern St. and New Mexico Highlands in games played at UT-Tyler.

Hillsdale rallied to win 5-3 in the second game against the Cowgirls but needed extra innings to finish off the victory, scoring twice in the eighth to take the win. The Chargers fell behind 2-0 early against New Mexico Highlands and were in danger of falling to a fourth straight defeat, but Hillsdale turned the game around with a big fifth inning, plating three runs to take a 3-2 lead.

After Medleigh Danchak drew a hit by pitch to start the top of the fifth, Hillsdale pieced together three straight hits to tie the game, as Sydney Davis advanced the runner to third with a single, and Anna Chellman and Nathalie Hagle followed up with a pair of RBI singles to tie the game at two apiece. 

After a sacrifice bunt by Cayla Contreras moved the Chargers runners over, freshman Maggie Hayward drove in the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly to give Hillsdale a 3-2 lead.

New Mexico Highlands wasn't done, as the Cowgirls tied the game at 3-all with a clutch solo home run in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings. In the eighth, however, the Chargers made sure there wouldn't be another comeback. Taylor Lewis led off the inning with a single and stole second, putting her in position to score the game-winning run on a single by Emma Sather and an error by Highlands. Sather scored later in the inning to give the Chargers an insurance run, and Hillsdale gave up just one baserunner in the bottom of the eighth to close out a hard-fought victory.

Sather went 2 for 4 at the plate to lead the Chargers offensively, and Danchak, Chellman, Hagle and Hayward each finished with a RBI as well.

Grace Harris picked up the win in relief to move to 2-0 on the season, striking out one and walking one in two and two thirds innings. Mackenzi Maxson had a solid game as a starter, going five and a third innings with a strikeout and handing the game to Harris with the Chargers ahead on the scoreboard.

Hillsdale showed grit in topping Highlands just a few hours after suffering a heartbreaker in a 9-7 loss to Northeastern State earlier in the morning. Looking to avenge a loss to the Riverhawks on Saturday, Hillsdale jumped out to an early lead with heads up baserunning, as Taylor Lewis scored in the top of the first on a Riverhawks error and Anna Chellman added another run in the second by stealing home on a first and third play. Cayla Contreras drove in a run on a triple, Nathalie Hagle hit a RBI double and Maggie Olaveson blasted a two-run home run down the left field line to give Hillsdale a 7-3 lead halfway through the fifth inning. 

The Chargers couldn't hold that edge however, as Northeastern State scored six runs in the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings to pull ahead for good, with a three-run home run in the sixth giving the Riverhawks a 9-7 lead they wouldn't relinquish. Looking to rally, Hillsdale got a baserunner on in the top of the seventh, but the Chargers couldn't get her past first base before running out of outs. 

Chellman was 2 for 3 with two doubles to lead the Chargers at the plate in the loss, Contreras went 2 for 2 with the RBI triple, and Hagle added two hits and a double as well. Hillsdale used four pitchers in the game, with reliever Katie Jonas taking the loss in one and two-thirds innings of work. Grace Harris started the game and pitched three and two-thirds innings with a strikeout, and Gracelynn Kelly and Anistyn Foster each recorded a strikeout in relief as well.

The Chargers finish their trip to Texas at 2-3 overall, though all three of those losses came against quality competition in nationally-ranked UT-Tyler and the 6-1 Riverhawks. Hillsdale is off this next weekend before heading to the Chicago suburbs for five games at the Rosemont Dome, beginning with a 4:30 p.m. ET contest against Bemidji State on Friday, Feb. 20.