SAN ANTONIO - No. 5 Texas A&M International University softball (26-31) won a 4-3 decision to the No. 1 seeded St. Mary's University Rattlers (30-25) on Friday afternoon. With the victory, St. Mary's is eliminated from the 2019 Heartland Conference Softball Championship.

In the top of the third frame, Erin Mosley (1-for-3, R) smacked a single to left field to give TAMIU its first hit of the day. Two batters later, Maya Paul reached base on an error by Rattlers shortstop, Tiffany Licon (1-for-3, R) that brought home Mosley to break the scoring ice.

In the next inning, TAMIU put another run on the board off of Rattlers starter, Staci Johns (ND: 3.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, ER, K, 0 BB) as Lindsey Smith (1-for-4, RBI) hit a single through the left side to drive home Maddison Schofield (2-for-4, HR, RBI, 2 R) to extend their lead to a pair of runs (2-0).

The Rattlers countered in the home half of the fourth inning on a Raynelle Nash solo home run that cleared the left field fence off of Dustdevils starter Jenika Lombrana (W, 12-13: 8 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 K, 0 BB) to cut the Dustdevils' lead to one (2-1).

The fifth frame was a quiet offensively as Lombrana and Rattlers relief pitcher Alex McLennan (L, 11-7: 4.1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, K, 3 BB) retired all three batters faced.

In the home half of the sixth, the Rattlers tried to battle back as Bari Christian hit a leadoff single up the middle and Victoria Aldridge (2-for-4) hit a single down the left field line. Lombrana then got Nash to ground into a huge double play to end the inning and preserve the 2-1 edge.

In the top of the seventh frame, TAMIU added another run on an RBI single by Melanie Gamboa off of McLennan that scored Jordan Meza to extend their lead to two (3-1).

The Rattlers quickly countered in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI single by Abigale Carney and a throwing error by shortstop, Heather Ruiz, allowed a second Rattler to score to knot the game at three apiece and send the game into extra innings.

In the next inning, Schofield smacked a two-out solo moonshot that cleared both the center field fence, and the batter's eye, to give TAMIU a 4-3 lead.

Lombrana got the final three Rattlers out in order to secure her 18th complete game of the season and a 4-3 extra-inning victory in eight innings.   

The Dustdevils will take on No. 4 seed, Lubbock Christian University (31-18) on Friday, May 3 from the Softball Stadium at The Park at St. Mary's in San Antonio.