SAN ANTONIO, Texas - No. 18 Metropolitan State University of Denver scored two runs in the top of the sixth inning to pull ahead of No. 7 St. Mary's (Texas) for a 6-5 win on Saturday in the NCAA South Central Region Tournament in San Antonio, Texas. The Roadrunners (44-14) advance to the sub-region championship game on Sunday at noon CT and will face the winner of St. Mary's and Regis University. That winner will have to beat the Roadrunners twice to advance to next weekend's South Central Super Regional.

The Roadrunners jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first after back-to-back two-out doubles by Sarena Espinoza (Corona, Calif./Corona Centennial H.S.) and Kaylynn Harmon (Erie, Colo./Erie H.S.). They stretched the lead to 4-0 in the fourth after a two-run single by Amanda Taney (Conifer, Colo./Conifer H.S.).

The Rattlers came storming back in the bottom of the inning with four runs to tie the game. After a dropped pop up to start the inning, Sydney Wellmann walked before a three-run home run by Haley Richter cut the lead to 4-3 with nobody out. Vianna Gutierrez kept the rally going with a double before starter Kenzie Mattey (Parker, Colo./Ponderosa H.S.) recovered to limit the damage to one more run. Leftfielder Britney Thomas (Cheyenne, Wyo./East H.S.) made a diving catch in the left-center gap to end the inning and strand the go-ahead run on third.

With one out and runners on first and third in the sixth, Thomas delivered a go-ahead single up the middle, scoring Espinoza from third. Colissa Bakovich (Loveland, Colo./Loveland H.S.) pushed the lead to 6-4 with an RBI single two batters later.

STMU added a solo home run by Gutierrez in the bottom of the inning, but Mattey retired the final five batters in order to end the game. She turned in an outstanding outing against the No. 7 team in Division II, allowing three earned runs and four hits in seven innings.

Espinoza finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored and a run batted in.