The Lady Cougars (21-16), who are the No. 4 seed in the five-team tournament, took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. Junior shortstop Tasha Konkle singled to left center to start the inning and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by junior outfielder Lauretta Wallace. One out later, junior outfielder Leslie Banichar singled to rightfield to put runners at first and third. After Banichar stole second base, sophomore second baseman Kristin Kurelic drove in two runs with an infield single.

The score remained that way until the top of the sixth inning when the No. 4 seed Lady Cavaliers (20-29) cut the deficit in half with an unearned run. Jessica Davidson led off the inning with a single and then moved to third on a pair of errors that also put a runner at second with no outs. Erica Kreiling followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-1, but the other baserunner was stranded as the next two Walsh batters struck out.

MVNU got the run back in the bottom of the sixth inning, though, as junior catcher Caitlin Murphy led off with a double to center and moved to third on an out. Konkle followed with a sacrifice fly of her own to leftfield to increase the lead to 3-1.

In the top of the seventh inning, the Lady Cavaliers were retired in order as the Lady Cougars posted the victory to advance to the loser’s bracket championship game with the 3-1 victory.

Senior right-hander Candace White (19-11) (above) earned the win on the mound for MVNU as she allowed just three hits, one walk, and one unearned run over seven innings with 10 strikeouts to match her season high set earlier this week against Shawnee State University. White also broke the school’s single-season innings pitched record in the game as she has now tossed 184.2 innings to surpass the mark of 179.2 set by Julie Ray in 1992. This season, White has appeared in all but two games and has set a new school mark with 35 total appearances.

Ashley Virgin (13-10) suffered the loss for Walsh despite allowing just six hits and three runs over six innings with six strikeouts.

Konkle paced the Lady Cougars’ offense by going 2-for-2 with a sacrifice fly, while Murphy’s double was the only extra base hit of the game. Davidson, Jenna Rosso, and Maggie Yavorsky each collected a single to account for the Lady Cavaliers’ three hits.

With the victory, MVNU advanced to take on No. 2 seed Ohio Dominican University (27-22) in the loser’s bracket championship. The game was scoreless through the first two innings and was suspended with the Lady Cougars batting and two outs in the top of the third inning due to heavy rain. The game is scheduled to resume from that spot on Friday at 10:00 a.m. weather permitting.

The winner of that game will advance to the championship game to face No. 1 seed Notre Dame (29-9). The Lady Falcons, who were the AMC regular-season champs, need just one win to advance to the NAIA National Tournament, while the MVNU-Ohio Dominican winner would need to beat Notre Dame twice to win the AMC Tournament.