FORT WAYNE, Ind.—South Dakota third baseman Sydney Hancock was 6-for-7 with a double, two home runs and five RBIs in leading the Coyotes to a day one split with Fort Wayne Friday at IPFW Softball Stadium. South Dakota won the opener 10-1 and Fort Wayne took the nightcap 3-2.
 
Hancock was 4-for-4 in game one and hit a three-run homer as part of a five-run fifth inning that gave the Coyotes (5-24, 1-1 Summit) a 6-1 lead. Brooke Curtis added a solo shot for South Dakota later in the inning and drove in a second run in the seventh. Seven of the Coyotes' nine starters registered a hit in game one.
 
Hancock hit a two-run homer in the top of the first inning of game two for her fifth hit of the day, but it was lone blemish on the stat line for Fort Wayne starting pitcher Elizabeth Snodgrass (1-3). The junior transfer from Division III Otterbein picked up her first win as a Mastodon by scattering eight hits in a complete-game effort. Hancock's homer and a double by Jessica Rogers in the fourth were the only extra base hits she allowed. South Dakota loaded the bases with one out in the sixth, but Snodgrass induced a shallow fly ball to center field and a ground out to short to get out of the inning.
 
Fort Wayne (10-21, 1-1) got back-to-back base hits from Demitra Burns and Jessica Murray to begin the bottom of the fourth and took the lead with a three-run homer by right fielder Caitlyn DeLong, her third of the season. Those were the lone runs allowed by Coyote starter Rachel Cue (1-12), who pitched her third complete game of the season. Cue surrendered nine hits and struck out three.
 
The rubber match of the series starts at 10 a.m. CDT Saturday.