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Scoreboard

Raynelle Nash
Antonio Morano Photography
Raynelle Nash crushed a fifth inning home run against TAMIU to help lift StMU into the championship round.
1
Oklahoma Christian OC 27-26
9
Winner St. Mary's STMU 41-10
Oklahoma Christian OC
27-26
1
Final
9
St. Mary's STMU
41-10
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 R H E
Oklahoma Christian OC 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 5 0
St. Mary's STMU 5 1 0 1 1 1 9 14 0

W: Russell, Hope (8-4) L: Madison Hagood (18-11)

1
Texas A&M Int'l TAMIUSB 24-35
4
Winner St. Mary's STMU 42-10
Texas A&M Int'l TAMIUSB
24-35
1
Final
4
St. Mary's STMU
42-10
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Texas A&M Int'l TAMIUSB 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 5 0
St. Mary's STMU 1 1 1 0 1 0 X 4 8 1

W: Mills, Ashley (13-0) L: K. Cruz (11-14)

Game Recap: Softball | | RattlerAthletics.com

@StMUsoftball advance to Heartland Championship

By Joe Rodriguez | St. Mary's Athletics Communications

SAN ANTONIO — St. Mary's won a pair of elimination games against Oklahoma Christian and Texas A&M International on the second day of the Heartland Conference Tournament, earning a trip to the championship round on Saturday.

The first game saw the Rattlers jump out early against Oklahoma Christian as they put up a quick five run inning in the bottom of the first. St. Mary's never looked back as they won the game 9-1 by mercy rule after six innings.
 
The Rattler lineup was spurred by a change to the lineup that saw Hannah Michel swap spots with Alena Moreno in the batting order; Michel moved to the leadoff spot and Moreno moved to second. Kristal Salinas also was moved up to bat sixth in the lineup while Olivia Van Hook was moved to the eight spot. 

The changes worked. 

The Rattlers got a strong performance out of Sydney Wellmann who had a two-RBI double in the first inning. Wellmann finished 3-4 at the plate with a run scored and two RBI. Salinas also responded strongly to being moved up in the order as she finished 2-4 with a solo homer in the fourth and two runs scored. 

St. Mary's also got an incredible performance out of their starting pitcher Hope Russell. Russell pitched a complete game, only surrendering one earned run and five hits. Russell, who has been in this type of big game before looked like it in her strong performance. 

"Hope's experience and what she was able to do last year, [even though] she did go through a time this year where she struggled a bit with her mechanics, she fixed that. So bringing her in today, our thought process was that we needed that [experience] on the mound," Head Coach Donna Fields said. 

The second game for the Rattlers saw St. Mary's in a rematch from yesterday's first round matchup against the Texas A&M International University Dustdevils. A game that TAMIU took by a score of 4-3 to beat St. Mary's for the first time this year. In the rematch in order to see who moved on to play for the conference championship the Rattlers pulled through 4-1. 

Coach Fields put emphasis on St. Mary's being able to shut down the Dustdevils early on in the first inning. Coming into this game the Dustdevils had gotten up early by scoring in the first inning in every prior time that these teams had matched up. In order to combat this the Rattlers start Kristi Rangel, who threw very well over 3.0 innings. Rangel only allowed one unearned run on three hits. The gameplan, according to Fields, was to allow Rangel to come out and last for as long as she could before ultimately handing the ball off the reliever Ashley Mills. 

Coming into today Mills had been tremendous again TAMIU. She had pitched 18.2 innings against the Dustdevils only surrendering four hits and no runs. Mills continued her dominant ways against TAMIU as she went 4.0 innings surrendering three hits and no runs. After the game TAMIU Head Coach Scott Libby called Mills "special." 

The Rattler offense was also special as they were able to get the bats going early and often. St. Mary's used a mix of small ball and power in order to put their four runs on the board. Freshman Raynelle Nash stood out as she went 2-2 with a home run and two RBI. 

The Rattlers will now advance to play for the Heartland Conference title yet again. In order to be crowned champions they will have to defeat the two seed in the tournament, Lubbock Christian, twice. The Lady Chaps have looked very strong in their victories. In the regular season the Rattlers defeated the Lady Chaps in two out of three games. 

The first game of the potential double header in set to begin at 2 p.m. and will be broadcasted at RattlerAthletics.com/Live.
 
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