PEMBROKE — While The University of North Carolina at Pembroke hasn’t necessarily won as many games as they would have liked so far this season, the Braves have battled through games all season long, with some notable comebacks.

Friday against North Greenville, the Braves trailed by four runs in the third, by three in the sixth and by two in the 10th — and each time they came back to tie the game or take the lead, culminating in a three-run walk-off home run by Lauren Hilbourn to earn an 11-10, eight-inning victory in game one of a doubleheader.

The Braves rode the momentum into the second game and shut down the Crusaders in a 3-0 win.

“Something about this team is we never give up, no matter what the score is,” said Summer Bullard, the winning pitcher in both games. “The other week (against Belmont Abbey) we were down 11-0 in the bottom of the fourth and came back. This team, they just don’t give up no matter the circumstances, and they have a lot of fight in them.”

The in-game conversation among the Braves, coach Stephanie Graziani said, remained calm and confident each time they were down.

“That was the constant conversation was ‘we’re good, we’re fine,’” Graziani said. “After every inning it was like ‘we’re still in this, we’ve got this,’ regardless of what the score was, so their fight is impeccable.”

Hilbourn’s game-winning home run came after North Greenville (16-18, 4-6 Conference Carolinas) took a 10-8 lead in the eighth inning of the doubleheader opener, using an Ali Hartin two-RBI double with two outs after UNCP (12-21, 5-5 CC) nearly escaped a two-on, no-out jam. Cirsten Calloway began the bottom of the eighth at second base as part of the International Tiebreaker rule used in college softball; Samantha Allred walked, and with one out Hilbourn drove one over the center field wall to end the game.

“There is no feeling like it,” Hilbourn said after her first walk-off home run at any level. “Honestly, I’m very happy with my season if it ended tomorrow. I’ve never felt anything like that, and to have those girls with me, meet me at home plate, it was very overwhelming. I couldn’t be happier.”

UNCP led 5-4 entering the sixth; three home runs for North Greenville, by Brianna McRae, Virginia Bishop and Ali Hartin, gave the Crusaders an 8-5 lead. The Braves fought back with an RBI triple by Cirsten Calloway and an RBI double by Marijo Wilkes before Allred scored on a wild pitch to tie the game.

North Greenville led the opener 4-0 after one run in the second and three in the third. Allred hit a grand slam in the bottom of the third to tie the game 4-4 and spark the Braves offense en route to their 11-run output in the game.

“That was the ignite for it,” Graziani said. “I tell them home runs are fun, but we’re really trying to get hard ground balls, hard line drives, and that’s what they do, and when they go over it lights us up; it really puts a light and a fire in us, and says ‘we’re here, don’t count us out.’”

A Connor Brisson RBI single gave UNCP a 5-4 lead in the fourth.

Bullard (4-6) earned the win after entering the game in relief in the eight inning and allowing one run. Madison Dyson started and pitched 5 2/3 innings for UNCP, allowing three earned runs, and Riley Fox pitched 1 1/3 innings, with two earned runs allowed.

Calloway, Wilkes and Kadence Sheppard led UNCP with two hits each. Allred had four RBIs and Hilbourn had three; Kaci Roberson, Calloway, Allred and Sheppard all scored twice.

Karley Green (8-10) took the loss for North Greenville. Lexis Wilkinson, McRae, Bishop and Hartin each had three hits, Hartin had three RBIs, Bishop and McRae each had two RBIs and McRae and Bishop each scored three runs for the Crusaders.

Bullard shuts down Crusaders

As wild as the doubleheader opener was, the second game was far more tame, with a low-scoring pitcher’s duel between the Braves’ Bullard and North Greenville’s Maddie Gore, with Bullard and the Braves shutting out the Crusaders.

Bullard, who stayed in the circle after pitching the final inning of game one, allowed five hits and four walks with five strikeouts.

“When I was told I was coming in (the first game), it was like my heart was at the bottom of my feet, because I was so nervous with runners on second and third, no outs, and I was just like ‘take a deep breath, you’ve got this,’” Bullard said. “The 30-minute break … I just kind of locked in because I’ve been struggling here lately trying to get the ball across the plate, they’re always going low. I was on the mound telling myself ‘you’ve got this,’ so I was locked in, so it was very good for me.”

Bullard also had six defensive assists, doubling her previous collegiate career high.

“She’s got a glove on her,” Graziani said. “The kid is so athletic. She just plays her position well. She’s heads up on the play; a ground ball to her, she’s checking the runner and making a good throw, and that’s hard sometimes for pitchers, if you don’t throw overhand a lot.”

After stranding runners in scoring position in the third and fourth inning, two more home runs provided the scoring for UNCP in the nightcap. Kaci Roberson hit a two-run blast, her first of the season, in the bottom of the fifth inning for a 2-0 lead; Hilbourn reprised her game-one heroics with a solo shot in the sixth inning of game two to extend the Braves’ advantage to 3-0.

“I knew that I needed to go in and do my job in the box, not swinging for the fence or anything, but I knew that if I stay in my swing I can do my job,” Hilbourn said.

That was enough as North Greenville stranded 11 baserunners, including two each in the third and fourth inning and three in the sixth.

Gore (5-3) pitched 4 2/3 innings, with two runs allowed on five hits for the Crusaders.

Sheppard had two hits in the nightcap for UNCP as part of a team-high four-hit day. Lewis Wilkinson had two hits for North Greenville.

The Braves will play another home Conference Carolinas doubleheader at 2 p.m. Saturday as Converse visits for Autism Awareness Day. Friday’s sweep pulled the Braves to a .500 record in conference play; they have 16 regular-season games remaining, all against Conference Carolinas opponents.

“I feel like the sweep today is the momentum-setter for the rest of the weekend, and the rest of the season, because our last two away series were really bad; the team was just not playing together, and we just acted like we didn’t want to be out there,” Bullard said. “We came out today in warmups and we said we were going to — what can we lose? Just play with everything you have and give all you’ve got, and the outcome of today was very good.”