CANYON, Texas – West Texas A&M used a big home crowd and another walkoff to advance to their third NCAA DII South Central Super Regional in program history as Ashley Hardin crushed a two-run bomb to straight away center field in the bottom of the seventh inning for a 4-3 win over the Mavericks of Colorado Mesa at Schaeffer Park in Canyon, Texas. The Lady Buffs move to 56-3 with the win while CMU ends their season at 40-13.
 
The teams traded zeros in the first two innings as a combined five base runners were left on base by the two teams before Brittany Gehle started off the WT offense with a triple to center field to leadoff the third followed two batters later by a Shea Ibrahim four-pitch walk to put runners on the corners with one out, Lacey Taylor drove in the game's first run with a ground out to first base to give the Lady Buffs a 1-0 lead.
 
The Mavericks responded with a leadoff triple by Brooke Hodgson followed by a Zoe Pakes RBI groundout to Ibrahim at third as Hodgson slid in under a tag at home followed by a Sarah Phillis triple to center field and a Nicole Robinson RBI single to knock WT starter Tori Bayer from the game with the Mavericks leading 3-1, Kilee Halbert entered the game and a CMU runner left first base early on a steal attempt to end the inning.
 
Allie Smith led off the home half of the fourth inning with a single to right field followed two batters later by a Shayne Starkey walk before Mikayla Kovac made a great play on  line to short followed by a fielder's choice to end the inning with CMU leading 3-1. Kourtney Coveney singled thru the right side with one out in the sixth followed by a Shayne Starkey single to right field to put runners on first and second, CMU got a break as Coveney was called out for obstruction on a collision between second and third for the second out followed by a Gehle single up the middle to score Starkey to cut the lead to 3-2.
 
The Lady Buffs showed some fireworks again in the home half of the seventh inning as Taylor reached on a fielding error in the outfield with one out before Hardin came thru in the clutch again with a first pitch two-run blast over the scoreboard in straight away center field for the 4-3 walkoff win. Halbert picked up the win (24-2) for the Lady Buffs, giving up no runs on four hits with one walk and three strikeouts in her 3.1 innings of relief.
 
Hardin's walkoff was the 23^rd homerun of the season for the sophomore which ties a program record for long balls in a single season (Renee Erwin, 2015). Since the end of the regular season, the Flower Mound native is hitting an incredible .385 (26 at-bats) with eight homeruns and 16 RBI for an astonishing slugging percentage of 1.346.
 
The Lady Buffs now host the NCAA DII South Central Super Regionals for the second time as the #9 Rattlers of St. Mary's come to town starting on Wednesday night at 6 p.m. in a best two-of-three series with game two and three if necessary on Thursday starting at 4 p.m. The Rattlers went thru the loser's side of their bracket in San Antonio as they topped Texas Woman's twice on Saturday (4-1, 4-3 (8)).