MONTGOMERY, Ala.| After a 17-hour delay, Alabama State advanced in the winner's bracket of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Softball Tournament with a hard-fought 4-3 victory over Texas Southern Friday morning.

Alabama State (22-22) trailed by a run through six innings, 3-2, before Amira James connected for a one-out single and advanced to second on an Alexis Massie single to left center. After Casey Durham struck out, Skyler Sullivan was down to her last strike before she dropped a single into left center to score James and Massie for the final margin.

Justine Jean came on in the seventh to record the final three outs on a pair of groundouts and a strikeout, picking up her first save of the season.

The Lady Hornets took the early lead in the first inning on an RBI groundout by Charlene Castro, before Texas Southern answered with a single run in each of the second and third innings to take a 2-1 lead. Alabama State answered with a home run from James to straight away center to tie the game at 2-all, before Texas Southern used a triple and an error off the bat of Julia Bilbao to take the lead heading into the seventh.

James finished the day 2-for-3 at the plate with a pair of runs scored, while Alexis Sydnor finished 2-for-3 for the Lady Hornets – who finished with nine hits as a team. Vanessa Bradford (8-8) picked up the win, working 6.0 innings and giving up three runs (two earned) on six hits.

Alabama State advances to the winner's bracket game at 3 pm Friday to face the winner of the Prairie View A&M-Alabama A&M contest.

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