MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - Morgan Dowdy hurled her second complete game of the season and Hayes Holdsworth delivered an 8th inning RBI single to lift the Charleston Southern softball team over Marshall, 3-2, on Friday morning at the College of Charleston Classic.

CSU (4-0) could not break through against Marshall starter Andi Williamson after plating two runs in the first, but Dowdy kept the Thundering Herd offense mostly at bay to force extra innings. The Bucs took advantage immediately in the tiebreaker, as Jana Matthews was placed on second base and crossed home plate for the decisive run when Holdsworth laced a RBI single down the left field line.

Dowdy improved to 3-0 on the year over 8.0 superb innings, while Williamson (2-1) took the hard-luck loss and went the distance for Marshall (4-2) despite striking out a career-high 13 batters. Dowdy recorded seven punchouts herself, and ran her streak of consecutive innings without yielding an earned run to 32.1 before surrendering a home run to Rebecca Gamby to start the fourth.

CSU tallied multiple first inning runs for the third consecutive contest to take a 2-0 lead off Williamson in the top of the first.

The first four batters the Bucs sent to the plate reached base, starting with a Megan Lombard leadoff walk. Jessica Brock was next, and continued her hot hitting by stroking a groundball single up the middle which sent Lombard on to third. Matthews kept the line moving when she lofted a RBI single into shallow center field to score Lombard for the game's first run. Kristin Kelleher then laid down a textbook sacrifice bunt up the third base line, and Brock came in to cross the plate for a 2-0 Bucs advantage when Thundering Herd second baseman Amanda Lara could not handle the throw across the diamond at first.

Williamson settled into a groove for Marshall in the circle after the rough start, striking out the side in the first and second innings before fanning two more in the third.

Marshall scratched out an unearned run off Dowdy to draw within 2-1 in the bottom of the second as Victoria Marvin worked a two-out walk, stole second base and came plateward on a throwing error. The Thundering Herd entered play as the national leader in stolen bases, and swiped one each in the first two innings before Bucs catcher Melanie Stickney fired a strike down to Lombard at second to cut down a runner and cap the third frame.

The Thundering Herd played long ball to even the ledger at 2-2 in the last half of the fourth, as Gamby slugged a long leadoff home run over the right field fence. Dowdy rebounded to retire the next three batters following the solo blast, though, as she used a pretty changeup to fan Marvin for her third strikeout of the morning.

CSU produced some solid swings against Williamson in the sixth, but could not get on the scoreboard. Stephanie Sbardella smoked a double off the base of the center field wall to start the inning, but was thrown out on a fielder's choice when Marshall shortstop Alianna Telles made a heads-up play on a groundball from Trea Steele. Stickney made a bid for her first homer of the year with a long drive to the left-center field gap, but it died on the warning track for the second out and Melissa Adams grounded into a fielder's choice for the final out of the frame.

Marshall was turned away by Dowdy in the bottom of the sixth, despite loading the bases on a pair of infield singles and an intentional walk with only one out. Dowdy bore down to whiff pinch hitter Bri Anna Hope on another changeup, before inducing a groundout from Taylor Winton that Sbardella took to the third base bag herself to thwart the threat.

Both clubs were set down 1-2-3 in the seventh inning, setting the stage for Holdsworth's heroics in the tiebreaker. Marshall got a runner to third base with only one out in the bottom of the eighth, but Dowdy would not wilt and induced a foul pop and a fielder's choice groundout to preserve the victory.

CSU returns to the diamond this afternoon in a scheduled 2 p.m. first pitch when they face off against Kennesaw State of the Atlantic Sun Conference. Freshman Jen Giles is expected to make her second start of the season in the circle for the Bucs.