HUNTSVILLE | The University of Alabama in Huntsville softball team made it a series sweep of West Alabama, winning 9-3 in Sunday's first game before making a dramatic comeback to win 8-6 in the nightcap. The Chargers improve to 26-10 (16-8 Gulf South Conference), while UWA slips to 26-10 (16-8 GSC).
 
Next Time Out
-The Chargers will step out of conference play on Tuesday, visiting No. 2 North Georgia in a doubleheader that starts at 2 p.m. CDT.
 
UAH 9, West Alabama 3
Game Changer
-UAH jumped on the Tigers with a four-run first inning that featured home runs from Kiara Akles, Brooke Miller, and Amber Hammonds, and Layton Murphy would allow just four hits in the contest to pick up the victory in the circle.
 
Inside the Box Score
-The Chargers outhit UWA by a 12-4 margin, and three UAH players each had three hits in the game: Reagan Malone, Miller, and Hampton.
-Miller's showing at the plate also included her driving in a team-best three runs, while Hampton and Akles both knocked in a pair.
-Miller also scored twice, and that team-high number was matched by Malone.
-Half of UAH's hits were for extra bases as in addition to the aforementioned home runs, Miller doubled and Malone had a triple.
-Murphy went the distance, scattering the four hits and allowing just one earned run of the three that UWA scored, and she struck out three and walked just one.
 
Key Plays
-After Malone led off the home half of the first with a triple, Akles would hit a two-run jack off the scoreboard for the game's first runs, and Miller then worked a seven-pitch at-bat that concluded with a home run for her, allowing the Chargers to go up 4-0 when Hammonds hit a solo shot two batters later.
-UWA then scored a run in the second and two in the third to pull within one at 4-3, but Hampton made it a three-run game with a two-run homer in the bottom of the third, and Miller would single in two more runs in the fourth to put the Chargers ahead 8-3.
-The scoring was rounded out by Malone's productive groundout in the fifth that plated Shannon Long and created the 9-3 final.
 
Noteworthy
-This is the third time that the Chargers have hit four home runs in a game, matching the feat from March 17 against Christian Brothers and March 10 at Valdosta State.
-The triple for Malone is her team-leading fifth of the year, and it gives the Chargers 13 on the season.
-Akles now has 10 home runs on the year, and she is tied for the team lead with 37 RBI.
-Murphy is now 14-6 on the season with a 2.11 ERA.
 
UAH 8, West Alabama 6
Game Changer
-After Jada Hayes worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the sixth, the Chargers would tie the game on a Miller groundout in the bottom half of the inning before Hampton hit a two-out, two-run home run that bounced off the top of the right field fence to give UAH the 8-6 advantage that would hold up for the win.
 
Inside the Box Score
-UWA tallied 10 hits in the game to UAH's eight, and half of UAH's hits came in the fifth and sixth innings.
-Hayes helped her own cause as she went 2-for-3 at the plate with three RBI, and she picked up the win in the circle by scattering five hits in 6.1 innings of relief, allowing just one run and striking out three.
-Hampton drove in two runs, while each of Miller, Cornell, and Long knocked in one.
-The Chargers had four more doubles in the contest with both hits for Hayes being two-baggers in addition to one each for Malone and Miller.
-UAH had seven different players record a stolen base.
-The Chargers logged seven walks in the contest.
 
Key Plays
-West Alabama jumped out to a 6-0 lead after scoring five times in the first and again in the second, but the Chargers would start to gradually chip away at the deficit starting in the home frame of the second when Hayes doubled in Cornell to make it 6-1.
-UAH would get on the board again in the bottom of the fourth when Long singled in Hayes after she had walked and stolen second, and the hosts then used three walks and a two-run double from Hayes in the bottom of the fifth to pull within one at 6-5.
-West Alabama looked to be destined to add insurance, loading the bases with one out in the sixth, but Hayes would buckle down and get a strikeout and field a hard-hit ball right back at her in the circle to end the massive threat.
-With runners at second and third and one out in the home half of the sixth, Miller fouled off four pitches to stay alive before grounding out to second and knocking in Malone to tie the game, and Hampton then took a 1-0 pitch and belted it out of the park to right to put the Chargers ahead 8-6.
-Hayes then worked around a two-out walk in the seventh to seal the contest.
 
Noteworthy
-Hampton's home run is her ninth of the season, and she is tied with Akles for the team lead in RBI with 37.
-Miller now has a team-best 15 doubles on the season.
-Hayes picks up her fifth win of the season in the circle, all of which have come in relief.