SAVANNAH, Ga. – The Norfolk State softball team earned a pair of eight-run rule victories over South Carolina State on Sunday during the final day of the Tiger Classic hosted by Savannah State.
 
Sophomore Meaghan Barfield drove in eight runs over the course of the day at Lady Tiger Softball Field, hitting a pair of home runs as part of a 5-for-7 effort with four runs scored. NSU took the first game by a score of 10-2, and they came back to top the Bulldogs 10-1 in the second contest. Both games finished in six innings.
 
Freshman Tuli Iosefa hit a three-run home run in the first game, while junior Shelby DesChamps batted 3-for-3 with three runs scored. She added another three runs and stole four bases in game 2, hitting 2-for-3 in that contest as well.
 
The Spartans improved to 4-2 on the season, while S.C. State fell to 0-6.
 
Freshman Kayla Porter (1-0) earned the victory in game 1, throwing all six innings and allowing three hits and two unearned runs. The Bulldogs scored their only two runs of the game in the top of the first thanks in part to two errors on NSU.
 
The Spartans wasted no time in getting those runs back. DesChamps walked and senior Seana Moriarty singled to start the bottom of the first. Barfield hit an RBI single, and junior Kylee Lopez added another run with two outs. Iosefa then followed with her three-run shot to left for a 5-2 advantage.
 
The lead stretch to five with three more runs in the second. An error and a walk put two runners on, and Moriarty's sac fly scored one. Barfield's two-run homer in the next at bat made it an 8-2 ballgame.
 
The Spartans later ended the game in the bottom of the sixth. DesChamps followed a walk with a bunt single, and one out later Barfield smacked an RBI single to center. DesChamps then scored on a walk-off wild pitch for the final eight-run margin.
 
NSU finished with 10 hits in the game.
 
Freshman Skylar Swain (1-1) struck out eight and gave up seven hits in all six innings of game 2. Barfield hit a sacrifice fly in the first for the early lead, and a suicide squeeze in the third plated DesChamps after she had singled with one out. Lopez and junior Hunter Halford walked to load the bases, and senior Jaylene Pryor hit a two-run single for a 4-0 lead.
 
DesChamps hit a sac bunt in the fourth to bring home another run, and Barfield singled and eventually scored on a wild pitch in the fifth. Later in the inning, freshman Jade Dixon singled in another run and scored on a wild pitch for an 8-0 advantage.
 
S.C. State kept the game alive with a run in the bottom of the fifth, but in the sixth, DesChamps walked and scored on Barfield's two-run homer for what ended up being the final nine-run margin.
 
Pryor had two of NSU's nine hits in game 2. The Spartans ended the doubleheader with 13 stolen bases.
 
Norfolk State will play South Carolina State again, once next Friday and twice more on Saturday at the NSU Softball Field in NSU's next games on the schedule.