DENTON, Texas – The West Texas A&M softball team stole Sunday's matinee from Texas Woman's, finishing the series sweep with a 6-1 win. The win improved the Lady Buffs to 21-3 overall on the season and 12-3 in Lone Star Conference play.
 
In the bottom of the first inning, the Pioneers stole a page out of WT's playbook by scoring in the first inning. Alyssa LeBlanc, Texas Woman's leadoff hitter, took Kyra Lair deep on the fourth pitch of the at bat. Lair answered the home run by sitting the Pioneers down in order including a pair of strikeouts.
 
It didn't take long for the Lady Buffs to answer TWU's first-inning run, scoring in the top of the second. With two outs in the inning, Julie Guzman dropped a single into right field. Gabriella Valforte followed Guzman's single with a double to the right-center wall, scoring Guzman from first and tying the game at one.
 
The game went scoreless until the top of the sixth when Gabie McConnell walked. Ruby Salzman singled, setting up Emilee Boyer's walk to load the bases. After a strikeout, the Pioneers looked to be in position to escape the inning. During Madison Johnson's at bat, a wild pitch allowed McConnell to score from third and Salzman to race around the bases and score from second. A two-out walk by Guzman set up Megan Guericke's RBI single up the middle and Sanchez's double over the third baseman. Coming up for the second time in the inning, McConnell forced a walk and brought in another run.  After being tied for five innings, WT used three hits and five walks to score five runs.
 
Despite falling behind after the first inning, the six unanswered runs by the Lady Buffs proved to be the difference maker in the game.
 
WT returns to Schaeffer Park for a top-25 matchup with No. 25 Oklahoma Christian. Game one of the series starts at 3 p.m. on Friday, March 17 followed by a 5 p.m. contest. The series finishes on Saturday with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.