Box Score By Kevin Farr
Murray State Sports Information
Shallen Mershon continued her region tournament hitting rampage with two more home runs and drove in four to lead Murray State to a 12-4 win over National Park College on Thursday in the Region 2 championship at Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Now a perfect 53-0 on the season, the top-ranked Lady Aggies advance on to the district tournament beginning next Thursday in Hot Springs against the Kansas conference championship. The winner of that series will move on to the NJCAA World Series.

After needing a dramatic rally to get the win less than 24 hours earlier, Murray State wasted little time in taking control of the championship, plating a pair of runs in each of the opening two frames before adding four in the fourth to cruise home from there.

Much like a day earlier when National Park had no answer for Mershon, the Lady Aggie sophomore torched them again as she opened the scoring with a two-run home run. Murray State's two runs in the second frame were spurred by a Jadyn Hook leadoff single and Chesnie Hewitt double two batters later.

The Lady Aggies broke it wide open in the fourth after loading the bases on three straight walks to begin the stanza. Kenzie Tuck doubled home the first two tallies with a Hook single accounting for the final pair.

National Park answered with two in the fifth as Murray State got one of those back in the bottom of the frame on Rayna Rock's RBI single.

After another Nighthawk run in the sixth narrowed the gap to 9-4, the Lady Aggies ended it on the run rule with three tallies of their own in the bottom of the stanza. K.J. Morgan's two-run homer got the first pair and Mershon put it away on a walkoff for the second straight game, belting a solo bomb over the centerfield fence.

Alexa Hopkins fired four and two-third innings, yielding one run on four hits with five strikeouts and three walks to record the victory.

Hook notched three hits and drove in one while Mershon contributed the two homers and four batted in while going a perfect nine for nine at the plate during the Region tournament, including five home runs and 12 batted in. Rock also added two hits with Hewitt, Morgan, Tuck and Emma Damato all picking up one.