SAN ANTONIO, Texas - After two errors in the seventh led to a 5-4 loss in the opener against UIW, the Nicholls State University softball team earned a split with a 9-4 victory in Game 2 in the teams' Southland opener Friday at HEB Field. 

Nicholls (9-19, 1-1 SLC) will try to take the series in Saturday's finale set for 12:30 p.m.

Game 1 - UIW 5, Nicholls 4

Kennedy Hebert hit a pair of solo home runs to fuel the offense, but UIW took advantage of a pair of late Colonel errors for a walkoff 5-4 victory.

Nicholls led 3-1 in the third after Hebert's first home run. UIW scored the next three runs before Hebert homered again in the sixth to tie it up.

In the seventh, the Colonels put the first two runners on but failed to plate the go-ahead run. UIW then had the leadoff runner reach on an error before a single and error allowed the winning run to come home.

Nicholls finished with five hits with Alexa Poche' and Melise Gossen each recording a single while Samantha Gwiazda had one double. Danielle Duplay drew a bases loaded walk in the second for the first run. Nicholls took the lead in the third with an unearned run before Hebert's first homer of the season.

Game 2 - Nicholls 9, UIW 4

Nicholls scored two runs in the first and never relinquished the lead, earning a 9-4 victory to split Friday's opening doubleheader.

The Colonels built a 6-1 lead through five innings and it was more than enough for starting pitcher Paris Lehman, who scattered nine hits and struck out four in the complete game victory. 

Samantha Gwiazda and Lulu Vazquez had two hits each with one going for extra bases. Vazquez doubled in a run in the first while Gwiazda homered in the fourth. 

UIW made it interesting with three runs in the fifth, but Nicholls answered with three runs in the seventh. Vazquez, Poche' and Scout Blades each had an RBI single to push the lead to 9-4. 

Lehman retired the Cardinals in order for her fourth win of the season.