OXFORD, Ala. – The No. 6 AUM softball team got a 2-1 walk-off victory over Mississippi College at Choccolocco Park on Friday to send the team into the Gulf South Conference Championship game for the fourth time in the last five years.
 
For the second-consecutive game, AUM (37-10) took advantage of its speed to create scoring opportunities and got an outstanding performance from Reese Cauley in the circle.
 
Jasmine Sneed drove in Whitney Wells in the seventh for the win as AUM will play either West Florida or Alabama Huntsville in the championship game on Sunday at 10 a.m.
 
Cauley (20-4) struck out five and allowed an unearned run on four hits as part of her 14th complete game.
 
The Warhawks started the scoring in the first as Haley Ann Frank beat out a single to short, moved to second on a passed ball and then stolen third, before coming home when the throw went wild.
 
Cauley, meanwhile, was perfect through five innings with a pair of strikeouts and no hits. But MC went small in the sixth, using a pair of bunts and a 70-foot single to tie the game 1-1. With two outs and runs on the corners, Madelyn England laid down a bunt that ended up scoring Bella Myers from third.
 
After both teams went scoreless in the next two half innings, the Warhawks had a chance to walk it off in the seventh. Meredith Kellum started with a single to right before Cauley walked two batters and two outs later, putting pinch runner Wells on second with two outs. Sneed hit the first pitch she saw inside the bag at third to score Wells and set off a raucous celebration in front of the AUM dugout.

The game was not without other big plays on both sides of the field. In the bottom of the fourth, Rebecca Komers walked and moved to second on a sacrifice. After a popout, Komers was thrown out at home trying to score on a Faith Wheat single. In the next half inning, Brooklyn Cannon led off for MC and hit a dying fly ball into shallow center where Chloe Baynes made a sliding catch. Baynes did one better in the seventh when she robbed Blakely Gill of extra bases and an RBI on a  deep fly ball to lef center where the Warhawk caught the ball on a sprint before crashing into the fence at the 225-foot mark.
 
AUM improved to 18-3 all-time in its fifth GSC Championship appearance. The Warhawks have won their last seven tourney games and are looking to add to titles won in 2021, 2022 and 2024.