Melissa Oliphant delivered a grand slam home run and Amanda Reyes pitched a three hitter to lead Florida A&M to a 6-0 win over Howard in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Softball tournament at the Ormond Beach Sports Complex.

The Lady Rattlers (30-23) advance to the next round and will play North Carolina A&T in the double-elimination bracket.  The winner will take on Bethune-Cookman in the championship game tomorrow at 1 p.m.

Florida A&M started it off in the bottom of the first inning when Jasmin Donaldson scored an unearned run that was set up by a Howard fielding error.

The Lady Rattlers added another run in the bottom of the third when Courtney Harold singled to left field to score Donaldson who has tripled to start off the inning.

Meanwhile, Reyes kept the potent Howard bats silent, twice retiring five batters in a row.

For the game, she struck out eight Lady Bison batters and allowed only three hits.

Any chance that Howard to get back in the game was diminished when Oliphant delivered a shot over the left centerfield fence to clear the bases and close out the scoring.

Corrine Gordon banged out three hits for Florida A&M. 

Lorae Robinson, Nicole Saez and Aisha Ledet each collected a hit in a losing cause.  Howard ace Emily Johnson did not play due to an ankle injury.  She gave way to Jessica Hurston (3-3) who pitched 3.1 innings and gave up all six runs while taking the loss.