Winning two out of three games, the Marshall softball team earned a series win Sunday against the Bellarmine Knights.

The Herd improved its record to 11-4 while the Knights dropped to 5-18.

Marshall head coach Megan Smith Lyon said that she expected the Herd to take control of game three after two close contests Saturday.

“I felt like yesterday should have been more like today,” Smith Lyon said. “I was really confident that we would bounce back after yesterday and make the adjustments that we needed to, and we certainly did that offensively.”

The Herd split the Saturday double-header, losing game one 3-1 and winning game two 5-3.

Knights’ sophomore shortstop Alexis Hargrove hit a game-winning two run homer in the top of the seventh inning to guide Bellarmine past Marshall in game one.

The Herd responded in game two, getting the win with two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Redshirt senior third baseman Blakely Burch hit an RBI single to give Marshall a 4-3 lead.

Moments later, junior left fielder Grace Cheleman hit an RBI single of her own to give the Herd a 5-3 lead. She went a perfect 4-4 at the plate in game two.

Game three, however, was not akin to the first two contests, as the Herd jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second inning, winning the game 10-0 in five innings.

Marshall had two players get their first home runs of the season while one got her first home run of her collegiate career.

Senior shortstop Madison Whitaker jump-started the second inning with a home run to put the Herd up 1-0.  Whitaker, a transfer from Wright State, stepped into redshirt senior Sierra Huerta’s shortstop spot after Huerta could not go.

Whitaker said that she did a good job playing the shortstop position considering this is the first time she’s ever done so.

“With Sierra being out today, I kind of had to fill some really big shoes,” Whitaker said. “When I hit that ball (out of the park), I knew I got the job done.”

Freshman right fielder Kay Kay Kenney got her first career home run in the third inning, and it drove in two runners, increasing Marshall’s lead to 7-0.

Senior pitcher Laney Jones was the winning pitcher in games two and three, pitching 6.2 shutout innings in total. Her record on the season is 4-1, and her ERA is 2.25.

The Herd will host the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers at Dot Hicks Field for a four-game series in its next matchup. The games will take place on Thursday at 1 p.m., Friday at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. and Saturday at 12 p.m.

Noah Hickman can be contacted at [email protected].