BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Alex Edinger and Whitney Robinson each had three hits, Janie Knowles had two hits including her first home run of the season as the Arkansas Tech Golden Suns softball team (38-18) won its opening-round matchup against Harding (22-31) in six innings on Thursday.

Jalissa Gum's sacrifice fly in the first inning put the Golden Suns on the board, but Harding responded in the second, scoring a run on an RBI single by Amanda Berdon to tie the game. A fielder's choice put Tech ahead in the bottom of the inning, and Knowles' three-run homer gave the Golden Suns a 5-1 lead later in the second.

An RBI single by Berdon in the fourth cut the Tech lead to 5-2, but the Golden Suns got the run back in the bottom of the fourth inning on an error and stretched the lead to 7-2 on an RBI single by Alexa Wimberly.

An RBI single by Alex Edinger in the fifth gave the Golden Suns an 8-2 lead, and then in the sixth, Tech scored a pair of runs on an RBI single by Chelsea Reeves and a triple by Robinson to invoke the run rule.

Morgan Vaughan picked up the win in relief, scattering four hits in 2.2 innings of work to improve to 11-6 on the season.  

The Golden Suns face Henderson State in a winner's bracket game on Thursday evening.