FAYETTEVILLE — Cylie Halvorson was hunting a specific pitch Saturday evening at Bogle Park.
At the most crucial time, she found it.
In front of the second-largest crowd in the ballpark’s history, Halvorson saw a rise ball left over the plate in the seventh inning.
She made solid contact, and from the moment the ball left her bat, the crowd had no doubt it was gone.
Halvorson’s game-winning solo home run landed in the left-field berm and completed the eighth-ranked Arkansas softball team’s 4-3 comeback victory over No. 14 Georgia.
“The reaction was awesome,” Halvorson said of the energy from the 3,260 in attendance after her hit. “In the at-bat, I just wanted to do whatever I could for the team. We were tied, so I wanted to get on and do something for the team.
“I wanted to do better than I had my prior two at-bats, and so I had a plan going into it. She threw me what I was looking for and I just attacked it.”
In her previous at-bat, Halvorson was frozen on a pitch from Georgia right-hander Kylie Macy. The Razorbacks had two runners on base and her strikeout ended the inning. The South Dakota State transfer said she didn’t want to make the same mistake again.
“That's the exact pitch I was looking for,” Halvorson said of the final pitch. “She threw it to me twice in my prior at-bat and I took them. So I knew she was going to come with it at some point, and that's what she did.”
Arkansas (28-11, 9-6 SEC) trailed 3-0 midway through the game but scored the final four runs.
A two-run single from Reagan Johnson brought the Razorbacks within 3-2 in the fourth inning. It was the team’s first score since the third inning of Thursday's series opener against the Bulldogs (31-8, 11-3).
Two innings later, Hannah Gammill knotted things up with a solo home run. It was her fourth homer of the season.
“I don't know what her vertical was before she got to first, but when she saw it go out, I think she might have hurdled [student assistant coach] Linnie [Malkin] at first,” Arkansas coach Courtney Deifel said of Gammill. “It was just a really big moment for Hannah to get that hit for her team and for herself.”
It was a "huge" play, Halvorson said.
"You kind of took a breath. You didn't feel everything on your back anymore," she said. "It was basically a 0-0 ballgame at that point.”
It looked as if Georgia might silence the home crowd in the top of the seventh inning. Back-to-back hits from Jaydyn Fields and Lyndi Rae Davis gave the Bulldogs runners on the corners with no outs.
Arkansas ace Chenise Delce then struck out Sydney Kuma, who entered with a .375 batting average and had a hit earlier in the game. Kristina Foreman turned a double play at second base to end the inning.
“Those are just big-time plays,” Deifel said. “I mean, they're huge, and I thought Chenise showed a ton of guts today."
Delce tossed a complete game — her second of the series — and allowed 3 runs on 9 hits with 6 strikeouts. She forced eight ground outs and worked her way out of multiple jams. Georgia stranded 10 runners.
"When we have her on the mound, we have a chance,” Deifel said. “That's the kind of pitcher that she is.”
The Bulldogs scored a run in each of the first three innings before Delce posted four-consecutive scoreless frames. Dallis Goodnight led the Bulldogs with 3-for-4 hitting and an RBI single in the second inning. Jayda Kearney and Davis each had two hits.
Johnson and Raigan Kramer both went 2 for 4 from the plate for Arkansas. Johnson’s 2 RBI led the team.
It was Arkansas’ second walk-off win at Bogle Park this year. Gammill hit a game-winning single in the home opener against Arizona.