Florence, Ala. -- The Hawks came from behind to top Delta State 5-4 to advance in the Gulf South Conference Tournament.

Shorter (30-18) fell behind 3-0, after the Statesmen scored a run in the first and added two more in the second.

But from there the Hawks began chipping away; making the most of the opportunities they were given. Taylor Ann Oda walked to lead off the third, and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Carson Carriker, before Tiffany Holland tallied an RBI double to shallow right field to bring her in. And, the fourth was identical; Kameron Carter led off the inning with a walk, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Peyton Barthel, and come in an RBI double to right center from Ericka Bynum to make it a 3-2 game.

The Hawks took the lead, for good, in the fifth. With one out, Niki Cook singled up the middle, and moved to second when Kendall Johnson reached on an error by the third baseman. The pair then came in on Carter's 14th homerun of the season to put Shorter ahead, 5-3.

Delta State (34-20) threatened in the seventh with two outs, recording three consecutive singles, scoring one run. Kalei Kimbrell then came in to face what would be the final batter, turning in her 12th strikeout of the weekend.

Five different players tallied a hit in the game for Shorter.

Payton Lippert earned the win, turning in five innings of relief, allowing one run on five hits with two walks and three strikeouts. Kimbrell faced one batter to earn the save, her 8th of the season. While, Hannah Draper made the start, pitching 1.2 innings, allowing three runs on three hits with a walk.

Shorter was originally scheduled to play West Florida later in the afternoon Friday, but due to the weather the afternoon games were moved to Saturday morning. The Hawks will take on UWF for the fifth time in a week at 1:15pm EST with the winner advancing to play the loser of the North Alabama/Valdosta State game to be played at 11:00am EST Saturday.