Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Kearney, Neb. – Senior third baseman Sarah Rome belted a two-run homer and the Nebraska-Kearney softball team scored three times in the top of the seventh to beat  Missouri Southern State, 7-4, in the first game of a double header Saturday in Joplin.
 
The Lions (15-31, 7-15) had 14 hits to take the nightcap, 10-2 (5 innings).
 
UNK (11-25, 9-15) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in game one after Rome (2 for 4, two runs) belted the ball over the left center field wall in the fourth. That gives her five, a team-high, on the year as well 25 in her career.
 
Southern, which out hit UNK 13-7, tallied four in its half of the sixth to knot things up. Among the five hits in the big inning was a run scoring double by first baseman Dawn Grass (2 for 3).
 
Freshman left fielder Taylre Keenan (Ralston) started the Loper seventh by reaching due to an error. Moving up two bases thanks to a wild pitch and passed ball, she scored when junior short stop Mallory Noakes (Lincoln SW) hit a single to right.
 
Sophomore first basemen Kate Ruwe (Blair) and senior center fielder Mackenzie Tomlin (Grand Island) followed with RBI doubles to pad the lead.
 
Iowa senior Brittnie Kreiser (6-8) earned the win in relief, throwing 1.1 scoreless innings. She then started game two, blanking the Lions over the first two innings.
 
However, Southern crossed home plate five times in the third, three more times in the fourth and twice in the fifth. Six different Lions had two hits with catcher Kathryn Goins having her fifth homer of 2014.
 
Tomlin and sophomore DP Erin Dwyer (Elmwood) had RBI's for the Lopers.
 
UNK is off until an April 22nd home double header with Chadron State.