Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 By Kevin Farr
Murray State Sports Information
Sophomore Shallen Mershon blasted two home runs as well as a walk off RBI double in the seventh inning Wednesday evening to rally top-rated Murray State to a dramatic 5-4 win over National Park College and advance to the NJCAA Region 2 sophomore championship game.

Mershon's game winner with one out in the final frame scored pinch runner Mattie Richardson and capped a comeback from an early 4-0 deficit and kept the Lady Aggies' perfect record intact at 52-0 on the season. The Lady Aggies will meet the National Park-Rich Mountain elimination game victor at 2 p.m. Thursday at Majestic Park for the Region 2 title and berth in next week's NJCAA District Tournament.

Earlier in the day Wednesday, Murray State smacked fourth-seeded Carl Albert State College, 18-1, to run their NJCAA Division 2 national record winning streak to 51 in a row.

National Park tagged Lady Aggie standout Alexa Hopkins for four runs in the first two stanzas to build the early advantage before the comeback began in a gradual process. Murray State plated a single run in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings to completely erase the deficit.

Following the early National Park flurry, freshman Christina Clark came out of the bullpen to squelch the Nighthawks with three scoreless frames of two hit relief and allow the Lady Aggies to chip away at the deficit. Hopkins returned for the seventh and retired all three batters she faced to eventually pick up the pitching win.

Kenzie Tuck tripled and scored on an Emma Damato single to begin the rally. One frame later Mershon led off with her first home run and Chesnie Hewitt notched a two-out solo blast in the fourth that narrowed the gap to 4-3.

Mershon came back up in the fifth stanza and stayed red hot at the plate with another leadoff homer that knotted the score.

K.J. Morgan started the final flurry in the seventh with a single before Richardson was inserted to pinch run and immediately stole second base. Two pitches later it was Mershon to the rescue again with a double for her fourth hit of the night, setting off the Lady Aggie celebration.

In addition to the Mershon huge night, Murray State also picked up one hit apiece from Hewitt, Morgan, Tuck, Rayna Rock, Jadyn Hook and Damato.

The Lady Aggies were in a 1-1 deadlock in the opening game into the third before producing their biggest offensive frame of the entire season, batting around twice to plate 16 runs and take command.

Mershon was the spark for the huge explosion as well, hammering a grand slam over the leftfield wall. Tuck chipped in a two-run homer and Brylea Russell and Morgan each had doubles to continue the barrage. Tuck added her second home run of the inning moments later, driving in three runs, while Hook capped the burst with another two-run homer.

Murray State finished with 13 hits, eight of which went for extra bases. Mershon had three of those and drove in five runs, finishing the with a sizzling seven for eight performance at the plate. Tuck drove in five with her two hits, Hook had four RBI and two hits with Hewitt and Rock also tossing in multi-hit games.

Ileana Lucio twirled three innings for the pitching win, yielding one run on five hits and two strikeouts. Clark added two stanzas of scoreless three-hit relief.