UNO's Season Ends With Loss to West Texas A&M

CANYON, Texas (UNO Media Relations) - The 15th-ranked UNO softball team saw its season come to an end after an 8-1 loss to No. 12 West Texas A&M in the championship game of the NCAA South Central 2 Regional at Lady Buff Yard on Sunday.

The second-seeded Mavs were beaten in the first game against West Texas A&M on Sunday, 1-0, to bring on the elimination game for both teams. In the final, the top-seeded Lady Buffs put two runs on the board in the first inning and allowed just two Maverick hits in the game to end the Mavs' season for the second straight year at an NCAA Regional.

West Texas A&M (49-16) will move on to play at No. 5 Midwestern State in next week's NCAA South Central Super Regional. The Mavericks end their season with a 47-11 record, marking the fourth straight year UNO has won at least 40 games.

The Lady Buffs carried the momentum over from their win earlier in the day by stinging the Mavericks for two runs in the top of the first. Kasey Henderson singled hard to shortstop, and Kim LeComte singled down the left field line to put runners at second and third with one down. Beth Haley, starting her second game of the day, set down Kaitlyn Witte swinging, but Meghan Brown drove home both runners with a liner to right center for a 2-0 Lady Buff lead early on.

The Mavs drew a run back in the bottom of the second when Molly Feichtinger singled up the middle with runners on the corners to score Ashley Lynch to make it 2-1.

Lindsey Slocum came on in relief of Beth Haley -- who pitched the entire first game and first two innings of the second game -- with a runner on second and one down in the third inning, but LeComte drove a ball to left field to score Henderson from second to regain the two-run advantage for the Lady Buffs at 3-1. It didn't take long for WT to add to it though, as Kristina Myles hit a gapper to right center to plate two more Lady Buffs to make it 5-1.

In the top of the sixth, Henderson delivered a bases loaded single to extend the Lady Buff lead to 7-1, bringing on UNO freshmanDana Elsasser to pitch. LeComte then knocked a single that deflected off of Elsasser to score Alyssa Lemos for an 8-1 lead.

Lady Buff pitchers Shelbey Cockrell and Marci Womack continued to stifle the Maverick bats, combining to limit the Mavs to just two hits in the game. Cockrell earned the win to improve to 24-8, while Haley took both losses on the day to drop to 22-5 in her final season as a Maverick.