CANYON, Texas – West Texas A&M sophomore right hander Kilee Halbert tossed a one-hit shutout in front of a record crowd on Wednesday night as the top ranked Lady Buffs scored six runs in the second inning and never looked back in a 8-0 run-rule win over the #9 Rattlers of St. Mary's in front of a Schaeffer Park record crowd of 767 fans during the NCAA Division II South Central Super Regionals in Canyon, Texas. The Lady Buffs improve to 57-3 while the Rattlers fall to 47-13 on the season.
 
The Lady Buffs looked to take the momentum early as Kilee Halbert sat the Rattlers down in order in the top of the first inning with a pair of strikeout to bring the Lady Buffs to bat, Andrea Sitter drew a five-pitch walk with one out followed by a Shea Ibrahim bunt single to third before STMU's Jorden Russell responded with a popup in foul territory and a line drive out to center field to head to the second inning tied at 0-0.
 
The Rattlers registered their first base runner of the game as Raynelle Nash walked to leadoff the second followed by a Marcy Vasquez sacrifice bunt to move the runner up 60 feet, Halbert responded with her third strikeout of the game followed by a soft line drive to Ibrahim at third to bring the Lady Buffs to the plate in the second.
 
Shayne Starkey singled to right center with two outs to keep the second inning alive followed by a hit-by-pitch to Brittany Cruz, Brittany Gehle singled to shallow left field to load the bases followed by a Sitter walk on five pitches to score the game's first run. Ibrahim was hit by a 1-2 offering to score Cruz from third followed by a wild pitch that brought home a pair of runs as an errant Rattlers throw made it 4-0, WT wasn't done yet as Lacey Taylor launched a two-run blast on top of the black monster in left field to run the WT lead to 6-0 headed to the third.
 
Habert continued to roll in the top of the third inning as the sophomore right hander, who was named the D2CCA South Central Region Pitcher of the Year earlier in the week, struck out the side to bring the Lady Buffs to bat in the third. Kourtney Coveney and Starkey singled to start the home half of the frame before Russell forced a double-play ball to Miranda Medina at short as she stepped on the bag at second and fired across to Sydney Wellmann followed by a line drive to Hannah Michel at third to end the inning with WT leading 6-0.
 
St. Mary's registered a pair of walks to start the fourth inning before the WT defense kept the momentum as Ibrahim fielded a shot to the hot corner and stepped on the bag and fired across the diamond to Starkey at first for a double play, another walk put runners on first and second with two outs before Halbert forced a grounder to Gehle at short to end the inning, 6-0. Sitter walked on four pitches to start the home half of the fourth followed by a pair of groundouts before Ashley Hardin singled to center field to score Ibrahim to run the score to 7-0.
 
The Rattlers registered their first hit of the game to leadoff the fifth as Kristal Salinas doubled to the left center field alley but Halbert responded again as the sophomore forced a popup to Taylor behind the dish followed by a shallow fly to Coveney at second followed by her seventh strikeout to end the inning, 7-0. The Lady Buffs ended the game in the home half of the fifth as Coveney crushed the second pitch she saw to straight away center field for a 8-0 walkoff homerun for the 8-0 win.
 
Halbert picked up the win (25-2) for the Lady Buffs as the sophomore right hander gave up no runs on one hit with four walks and seven strikeouts in the complete game one hitter. The Lady Buffs now hold a one-game advantage in the best-of-three series as they look for the program's second trip to the NCAA Division II Softball College World Series with first pitch set for 4 p.m. tomorrow afternoon in Canyon with the "if necessary" game taking place at 6:30 p.m.