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PEMBROKE – The UNC Pembroke softball team took advantage of a pair of errors to grab a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the first, but Coker scraped together four runs in the middle frames to rally past the Braves, 5-3, in the back half of a Saturday afternoon doubleheader at LRA Field.

Jamie Johnson doubled and drove in a pair of runs for UNCP (11-6) who got base hits from four different players in the outing. Ashley Gallman turned in a 3-for-4 plate performance for the Cobras (8-9), while Riley Morris (2-for-4) and Tayler Barcomb both plated a run on two-hit days at the plate.

Katie Saunders (4-3) struck out six batters over her fifth complete game of the campaign, but took the loss for the Braves after yielding 11 hits and five runs (three earned). Tabitha Allen (5-6) threw just 76 pitches and picked up the win for the visitors after scattering four hits and not allowing an earned run over her eighth complete game of the season.

Coker drew first blood on Barcomb's RBI double in the top of the first, but UNCP answered with three unearned runs in the bottom of the frame to take a lead it would hold for the next five innings. The Cobras cut their deficit in half on Ashlee Ellen's two-out single in the fifth, before adding three more scores off a pair of costly errors by the hosts in the sixth.

The Black & Gold will be in action again on Sunday when it steps back into Peach Belt Conference play to host Georgia Southwestern (7-11, 0-4 PBC) in a 1 p.m. twinbill at LRA Field. Admission to all 2015 UNCP Softball home games is free.