PENSACOLA, Fla. | The 15th-ranked University of Alabama in Huntsville softball team fell in its opening game of the 2019 Gulf South Conference Softball Championships, dropping a 12-11 decision to Union in nine innings. The No. 2 seed Chargers are now 37-14, while the seventh-seeded Bulldogs are 30-23.
 
UAH will now face Mississippi College in an elimination game on Friday at 10 a.m. The No. 3 seed Choctaws were upset by West Georgia earlier on Thursday.
 
The contest appeared to be headed towards a much less dramatic finish with Union leading 7-2 going into the bottom of the fifth inning, but UAH put together one of its patented big innings, sending 13 to the plate and scoring eight teams to turn the five-run deficit into a three-run advantage.
 
Amber Hammonds was especially impactful in the inning as she started the scoring in the frame with a triple that plated Shelby Booker, and she would later put UAH ahead by a 10-7 score when she tripled again with the bases loaded.
 
Ashley Cornell also doubled in a run, Taylor Wascavage drove in a pair on a perfectly placed ball behind first, and Eve Mallard tied the contest with a single to center before Hammonds hit her second triple of the frame.
 
Hammonds is just the seventh player in UAH history to have two triples in a contest.
 
After the Chargers surged in front, Union immediately had an answer, scoring four times in the fourth to go up 11-10 in the top of the sixth, but UAH would force extra innings when Kiara Akles singled in Shelby Booker in the bottom of the seventh.
 
UAH would threaten to win it in the eighth before Union bunted in the eventual game-winning run in the top of the ninth, as the Bulldogs stranded a pair of runners in the bottom half to secure the victory.
 
In the contest, the Chargers set the program's single-game record for walks as the team drew a whopping 16 free passes to break the previous high mark of 11 which had been set four times, and the 16 walks are the fifth-most ever by a GSC team in a game.
 
Both Booker and Jada Hayes had three walks in the game.
 
The Chargers finished the contest outhit by Union by a 13-10 margin, and each of Hammonds, Wascavage, and Cornell had a pair in the game.
 
Taking the tough luck loss in the circle was Layton Murphy who tossed three strong innings of relief, allowing just two hits and an unearned run while striking out one.