CANYON, Texas – West Texas A&M drove in a combined 28 runs on Friday afternoon including 17 in the nightcap as they topped the Grizzies of Adams State, 17-4 in five innings to conclude day one of the WT Woodward Invitational at Schaeffer Park in Canyon, Texas. The #1 Lady Buffs improve to 6-1 overall with the win while Adams State falls to 1-1.
 
The Lady Buffs continued their hot streak at the plate in the bottom of the first inning as Lacey Taylor drove in a pair of runs on a single to left center field followed by an Adams State throwing error that plated another run with one out, Allie Smith added to the lead two batters later with an RBI double to right center. Ashley Hardin registered a full-count walk to load the bases followed by a Brittany Gehle RBI single to left field to give the Lady Buffs their second five-run first inning in as many games to take the 5-0 lead into the second.
 
The Grizzlies plated their first runs of the game in the top of the second inning as a pair of Lady Buff errors led to two Adams State runs followed by an RBI groundout to Stacey Ramirez at shortstop to cut the WT lead to 5-3. The Lady Buffs added to their lead in the bottom of the second inning as Allie Cranfill sent a fly ball to the wall in left field with the bases loaded for a sacrifice fly to score Renee Erwin from third base followed two batters later by a Brittany Gehle two RBI single to right for the 8-3 lead.
 
Adams State plated another unearned run in the top of the third inning on an RBI single to left center field following an error earlier in the inning before the Hannah Newcomb got out of a bases loaded and one out jam with a ground ball back to the circle as the junior right hander started the 1-2-3 double play to end the inning with WT leading 8-4. WT added to their lead once again in the bottom of the third inning as Erwin drove in Tyler Wilkinson with an RBI infield single to stretch the lead to 9-4.
 
The Lady Buffs added to their lead again in the bottom of the fourth inning a Smith RBI double to the left field wall with no outs to score Cranfill from second base followed by a Hardin RBI triple to the deepest part of the park in right center field with no outs. Hardin scored from third base on an illegal pitch following a pitching change followed by a Wilkinson RBI single to right center, WT wasn't done yet as another run crossed the plate due to a Grizzlies error followed by a three run blast to right field by Taylor to make it 17-4.
 
Hannah Newcomb picked up the win (1-0) for the Lady Buffs, giving up four runs (no earned) on seven hits with one walk and one strikeout in the complete game performance.
 
The Lady Buffs return to action tomorrow afternoon as they take on Chadron State with first pitch scheduled for 1:45 p.m. followed by a rematch of last year's NCAA South Central Regional matchup with the Roadrunners of Metro State at 4:00 p.m. at Schaeffer Park.