Seniors Macy Baker and Laura Lopez each hit home runs as the No. 4-ranked Angelo State softball team (50-9) downed No. 6 Winona State, 7-3, in an elimination game at the 2009 NCAA Division II National Championship Finals at the James I. Moyer Complex in Salem, Va.

With the game tied 3-3 in the bottom of the fourth, Baker crushed her 17th home run of the season, scoring freshman Sandy James and Lopez, to lift the Rambelles to a 6-3 cushion. Lopez then added her 18th home run of the year, a solo shot, in the sixth frame to give ASU an insurance run and secure the Rambelles' third 50-win season in the past seven seasons.

Junior right-hander April Haywood (18-4) picked up the victory as she gave up three earned runs on 13 hits with three strikeouts and two walks. Baker ended the contest 4-for-4 with three RBI and a run scored while Lopez went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI.

Winona State (50-13) took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning on an RBI single by Jenny Wilmes, scoring Kathy Crudo. The Rambelles responded, however, with a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame on single by junior Nicole Smith, scoring junior Megan Pumphrey, and a sacrifice fly by junior Kristen Frye, scoring junior Sarah DeMoss.

The Warriors knotted the game, 2-2, in the third inning on a single by Crudo, scoring Mollie Bjelland, but once again ASU responded as Haywood would plate sophomore Alix Dean with a single to centerfield in the bottom of the third. Dean's run gave ASU back a one-run advantage, 3-2. Winona State would not have its season end easily as the Warriors countered with a run in the fourth on an RBI single by Kayla Lewis, scoring Amanda Wilhelm, to tie the game, 3-3, before Baker would put the game away with her long ball.

The Rambelles now advance to the national semifinals for the second time in school history and will have to defeat No. 5 Alabama-Huntsville twice Sunday to move on to Monday's title game. The first of two possible games is set for 1 p.m. (Central) with the "if" game set for 5 p.m.