Aurora University (Ill.) 4, UW-La Crosse 3

Whitewater, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse softball team fell 4-3 to Aurora University (Ill.) Friday morning in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Regional at van Steenderen Field at UW-Whitewater. The Eagles now face the University of Redlands (Calif.) in an elimination game at 1 p.m. Friday.

Aurora took advantage of four UW-L errors to earn its win Friday morning. The Spartans took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second. Shannon Starr walked to lead-off the inning and after Brooke Spencer reached on a sacrifice bunt, both runners moved up on an Eagles' error. Starr then scored on a passed ball to make it 1-0 and Spencer scored on the second UW-L error of the inning on Jessica Scott's fielder's choice.

UW-L cut the lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth on Cara Salm's lead-off home run, but Aurora came back with a pair of unearned runs in the fifth. Scott reached on an error to start the inning and Caitlyn Clay reached on an error. The Spartans then advanced both runners with an sacrifice bunt and Karisa Hansen followed with a bunt single to knock in both runners.

The Eagles made it 4-3 in the bottom of the sixth as Katie Keyes walked with two outs and scored on Natalie Stoll's home run.

Heather Schultz (22-3) suffered the loss for UW-L, pitching 7.0 innings, allowing two hits, four runs (all unearned) and one walk while striking out 11.

Stoll was 2-for-3 at the plate with a run scored and two RBI. UW-L finished with six hits in the game.

Anna Snyder (24-5) earned the win for Aurora. She pitched 7.0 innings, allowing six hits, three runs and two walks with eight strikeouts. Hansen and Spencer had the Spartans' hits.

UW-L returns to action versus the University of Redlands (Calif.) at 1 p.m. Friday. The Bulldogs enter Friday's game with a record of 32-13.