CANYON, Texas – West Texas A&M freshman catcher Maddie Green connected on a pair of homeruns and junior Kilee Halbert struck out eight as the #6 Lady Buffs took the weekend Lone Star Conference series from the Javelinas of Texas A&M-Kingville, 5-2 on Sunday afternoon in front of over 300 fans at Schaeffer Park. The Lady Buffs improve to 37-9 (21-6 LSC) while the Javelinas fall to 23-23 (12-13 LSC) on the season.
 
The Lady Buffs used the long ball to take the lead in the home half of the second inning as Maddie Green crushed a solo bomb to center field with two outs in the frame for the early 1-0 advantage. The Javelinas look to change the momentum in the top of the fourth inning as they used a pair of infield singles to put runners on first and second with one out, a walk loaded the bases before a flyout to Ashley Hardin in center followed by an apparent single to right field but the TAMUK base runner was struck by the live ball for the third out.
 
WT added to the lead in the home half of the fourth inning as Shea Ibrahim singled to left field on a full count offering with two outs to score Shanna McBroom and Shayne Starkey to extend the lead to 3-0. Kingsville cut into the lead in the top of the fifth inning as Victoria Schoonard-Saborio sat on a changeup and lifted the ball to left center field for a solo homerun at 3-1.
 
Green continued her big afternoon at the plate in the bottom of the fifth inning as the freshman blasted a two-run shot to left center field for her second homerun of the day to extend the lead to 5-1. The Javelinas cut into the lead in the top of the sixth inning with a bases loaded walk before Kilee Halbert ran her strikeout total to eight to end the inning, 5-2.
 
That's all the lead that senior right hander Kami Merrill would need as the Calgary native entered the circle in the seventh to pick up her first career save. Halbert picked up the win (18-3) in the circle, giving up two runs (one earned) on five hits with six walks and eight strikeouts in her 6.0 innings of work.
 
The Lady Buffs hit the road next weekend for the final Lone Star Conference series of the season as they take on the Greyhounds of Eastern New Mexico starting on Friday afternoon with doubleheader action set for 2 p.m. CT followed by the regular season finale on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. CT in Portales.