SAN ANTONIO -- Midwestern State senior Kim Jerrick crushed her seventh homer of the season here in the finale of the St. Mary's Rattler Invitational Sunday afternoon.
 
But it wasn't enough to push the Mustangs past 14th-ranked St. Mary's who came away with a 4-3 win.
 
MSU finished the weekend with a 2-4 record while falling to 10-8 on the season. Midwestern takes on Texas-Permian Basin in doubleheader Tuesday in Odessa before opening Lone Star Conference play against probable No. 1-ranked West Texas A&M Friday night at Mustangs Park.
 
St. Mary's jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning as MSU starter Katlyn Holmes struggled with her command walking consecutive batters after Nicole Sardelich led off the game with a single to center field.
 
Holmes limited the damage by retiring the next three hitters as the Rattlers managed to plate runners on a groundout and a sacrifice fly.
 
St. Mary's increased its lead to 4-0 on a Amanda Villa's two-run infield single in the fourth inning as Laure Benavidez hustled around from second to score on a diving stop by MSU second baseman Shelby Carter. Villa legged out the two-out safety to provide what ended up being the difference in the game.
 
MSU finally got to Rattlers' starter Vianna Gutierrez, who retired the first nine hitters she faced, in the top of the fourth.
 
Jerrick crushed a leadoff shot over the left-field fence to cut the deficit to three runs.
 
Sophomore center fielder Haley Howerton laid down a bunt single and came around to score on a fielding error to cut the margin in half.
 
Sophomore pitcher Kat Batey came on for Holmes to start the fourth inning and delivered another solid performance in the relief keeping the Rattlers to one hit over the final three innings.
 
Batey has now allowed two runs on seven hits in a 10 2/3 innings of relief this season for a 1.31 ERA.
 
The Mustangs pulled to within a run in the fifth when Jerrick reached on a one-out walk, advanced to second on a passed ball and scored on Kelley Schaefer's RBI-single up the middle.
 
That's as close as the Mustangs would get as St. Mary's ace Emily Brittain came on for two scoreless innings of relief to earn her second save of the season.
 
Howerton paced MSU's six-hit attack by going 2-for-3.
 
St. Mary's claimed its 13th consecutive win to improve to 17-3 on the season.