CANYON, Texas – West Texas A&M sophomore outfielder Ashley Hardin proved why she is one of the most feared hitters in Division II Softball on Friday night as the Flower Mound native registered an inside the park homerun to leadoff the sixth inning followed by a walkoff bomb to right center field in the bottom of the ninth with one out to give the Lady Buffs a 6-5 win over the Angelo State Rambelles during the 2016 LSC Semifinals at Schaeffer Park in Canyon, Texas. The top ranked Lady Buffs register their 15^th straight win to move to 51-2 overall while the Belles fall to 37-21 overall.
 
The first two innings saw a pitcher's duel as the first hit came in the top of the third inning on a Ciara Sheppard single to left field with one out before Kilee Halbert forced a groung ball to the circle for a fielder's choice for the out at first followed by her second strikeout of the game headed to the home half of the third tied at 0-0. The Lady Buffs threatened in the home half of the third inning as Andrea Sitter reached on a fielding error with two outs followed by a stolen base before a fly ball to the left center field gap ended the inning at 0-0.
 
The Lady Buffs plated the game's first run in the fourth inning as Ashley Hardin reached on an ASU error with one out followed by an Allie Smith RBI double to the right center field alley to score Hardin at 1-0, WT wasn't done yet as Shayne Starkey singled to left field to score pinch runner Alyssa Montoya before LSC Freshman of the Year Brittany Cruz laced a triple to the right center field gap to run the lead to 3-0.
 
Madison Greenwell led off the sixth with an infield single followed by a walk to Alexis Evans and a hit by pitch to load the bases with no outs, Ambra Hill singled up the middle to score a run with no outs to knock Halbert from the game. Tori Bayer entered and handed out a four-pitch walk to score another run followed by a pair of strikeouts, the Belles took the lead on a Sheppard two-run single to right field along with a WT throwing error to give the Belles the 5-3 lead,
 
WT responded immediately on the fourth pitch of the home half of the sixth as Hardin laced a ball off of the right field wall as the sophomore raced around to score for an inside the park homerun, Smith singled to right center followed by a Kylee Moore pinch hit walk on four pitches. Starkey walked on a full count to load the bases with no outs followed by a Cruz sac fly to left field to tie the score at 5-5 headed to the seventh inning.
 
The Belles started off the seventh with a walk before a quick out as an attempted bunt bounced up and made contact with the batter in the field of play for the first out, Bayer stranded a runner as the senior forced a popup to the circle to head to the home half of the seventh tied at 5-5. Shea Ibrahim singled up the middle to start the bottom of the seventh followed by a Lacey Taylor walk to put runners on first and second with no outs, Hardin grounded into a double play to put a runner on second with two outs followed by a Smith intentional walk and a wild pitch to put runners on the corners with two outs followed by a Kourtney Coveney walk to load the bases before an ASU strikeout ended the inning and sent the teams to extras tied at 5-5.
 
Brittany Gehle made an ESPN Top-10 diving play to register the first out of the eighth to halt an Angelo rally but the Lady Buffs stranded a runner at first in their half of the inning to head to the ninth tied at 5-5. The Lady Buffs ended the game in the bottom of the ninth inning with one out as Hardin launched a missle deep into the sky beyond the right field fence as the Schaeffer Park crowd erupted for the walkoff win, 6-5.
 
Bayer picked up the win (15-0) for the Lady Buffs, giving up one run (unearned) on one hit with five walks and four strikeouts in her 4.0 innings of relief.
 
The Lady Buffs advance to their fourth straight Lone Star Conference Championship game tomorrow afternoon against the rival Pioneers of Texas Woman's with first pitch set for 2 p.m. at Schaeffer Park in Canyon. TWU topped Midwestern State in the other semifinal earlier in the day, 6-4.