NORFOLK, Va. – Norfolk State's bats exploded in game 2 of a doubleheader with South Carolina State, and the Spartan softball team swept the twinbill on Saturday afternoon at the NSU Softball Field.
 
The Spartans shut out the Bulldogs in the first game by a 5-0 margin despite compiling just three hits themselves in the game. But in game 2, NSU had 11 hits on the way to an 11-2 victory in five innings as part of the Spartan Classic.
 
NSU ran its win streak to seven in a row, improving to 7-2 on the year.
 
Junior Shelby DesChamps hit 5-for-6 with three runs and three RBI over the course of the day. Sophomore Meaghan Barfield batted in five runs as well, including a three-run homer in game 2 to help the Spartans break the game open.
 
The Spartans built a 4-0 lead in the second inning of game 2. Junior Kylee Lopez scored the first run after she got caught in a rundown between third and home but was able to cross the plate on a bad throw to home by the Bulldog shortstop. Junior Jaylene Pryor had doubled to the wall in left center the play before, and then she came home on freshman Kayla Porter's bunt single in front of the plate.
 
Freshman Jazzmaine Hammond later scored on a wild pitch, and DesChamps singled and came home on senior Seana Moriarty's double to left field for the fourth run of the inning.
 
Seven runs in the third then gave NSU the chance to win the game by the eight-run rule. The Bulldogs actually got the first two outs of the inning, and should have been out of the inning altogether if not for an error on the first Spartan batter, junior Hunter Halford. Then it all fell apart for South Carolina State.
 
Hammond walked, and Porter reached on an error to load the bases. Senior Julianne Gillo singled in one run, and a second came home when the throw to first went to the fence. DesChamps singled in two more runs with a hit between first and second, and two batters later Barfield launched a three-run homer over the left-center field fence.
 
Up 11-0 after the third inning, NSU saw the shutout disappear after Kaneisha Pettiford hit a two-run homer for SCSU (0-8) in the fourth for the final scoring in the game.
 
Freshman Skylar Swain (3-1) earned the win after allowing just one hit in three innings with four strikeouts. Lopez and Gillo each had two hits, and Hammond scored twice.
 
Norfolk State did secure the shutout in the first contest of the day. Halford (2-1) struck out four and allowed just one hit in five innings of work before giving way to relief pitcher Megan Przeslawski.
 
NSU had just three hits, two of them doubles off the bat of DesChamps. The only other hit came from Halford, who dropped a single into shallow center in the second and later scored on freshman Tuli Iosefa's sac fly to right.
 
DesChamps hit a two-bagger in the third and scored on Barfield's sac fly liner to left for a 2-0 lead. Three walks and two errors on SCSU gave the Spartans two more runs in the fifth, and DesChamps hit an RBI double in the sixth for the final margin of victory.
 
NSU will host Davis & Elkins for a doubleheader on Sunday at 10 a.m.