The Emory University softball team opened their two-game series against the Spalding Eagles with a 7-4 comeback win on Tuesday afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky. 

The Eagles improve to 7-4 on the season and have gone 3-2 in their past five games. Senior Page Nellis had one of her best offensive days of the season going 2-for-4 with two runs and three RBI, two of those becoming the winning runs for Emory in the seventh innings. Despite giving up four runs to Spalding, freshman Georgia Pineda had an impressive outing in the circle posting five strikeouts and not allowing a walk through 4.0 innings of work. Sophomore Mackenzie Duford also saw time in the circle recording 3.0 innings and five strikeouts of her own.

The first three innings were scoreless with both sides seeing three straight outs through the first two innings. Senior Natalie Swift notched the first hit of the day with a bunt single followed by a single to right field from freshman Grace Cooper, but Emory was unable to capitalize on the base runners.

With two outs in the fourth inning, freshman Ellie Zerr nailed a two-out single to center field followed by a single from sophomore Ella Hoyle putting runners at the corners for Emory. A single up the middle from freshman Sonia Klein  put the Eagles up 1-0 after the fourth inning.

Spalding had an offensive inning of their own starting the bottom of the fourth with a single, a home run and a double giving them a 2-1 lead with no outs. After another single put runners on the corners, back to back singles gave Spalding a quick 4-1 lead. Pineda was able to get out of the inning without allowing another run.

The fifth inning was quiet on both sides of the bats with Duford coming in for relief and allowing just one hit to Spalding in the bottom of the fifth. Emory started looking for its comeback attempt in the top of the sixth inning with sophomore Ashley Chu starting things off with a single followed by a triple from Nellis to score Chu cutting Spalding's lead in half. Zerr followed with a sacrifice fly to score Nellis and the Eagles were down 3-4 after the sixth inning.

Emory's offense exploded in the top of the seventh with three back-to-back-to-back singles with junior Kayla Lang tying the game with her single up the middle. Nellis delivered the winning runs with a single through the right side to score Lang and Cooper giving Emory a 6-4 lead. Hoyle put the cherry on top with a double to left field to score Nellis. Spalding was able to get a runner in the bottom of the seventh before back-to-back strikeouts from Duford ended the game.

The Eagles will face Spalding again on Wednesday, March 13 at 4:00 PM before returning to Atlanta on Saturday, March 16.