Whitewater, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse softball team earned a 9-2 victory over UW-Stout Saturday afternoon at UW-Whitwater's van Steenderen Softball Complex to advance to the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Championship (presented by Culver's) title game set for Sunday, May 7.  UWL is now 28-13 on the season.

UWL, ranked 23rd on this week's National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Top-25 Poll, fell 4-2 to ninth-ranked UW-Whitewater earlier Saturday before defeating UW-Stout in an elimination game.  UWL advances to face UW-Whitewater Sunday, May 7 at 10 a.m.  The Eagles will need to defeat the Warhawks twice Sunday to win the conference championship. 

UWL is seeking its third league tournament title in school history after securing the crown in 2009 and 2010.  The championship winner Sunday will be declared the conference champion and earn the league's automatic bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Tournament.  The NCAA Division III Regional will be held Friday, May 12 through Sunday, May 14 with the NCAA Division III Super Regional scheduled for Friday, May 19 and Saturday, May 20.  The NCAA Division III Championships are Thursday, May 25 through Tuesday, May 30 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
 
The field for the NCAA III Championships will be announced Monday, May 8 at noon (Central). 

With the win Saturday, Chris Helixon is now 300-186 (.617) in his 12th-year as UWL's head coach. He is 352-270-1 (.566) overall in 17 seasons.  Helixon is the fifth coach in WIAC history to win 300 games.

UWL raced out to a quick 4-0 lead after two innings in its win over UW-Stout.  The Eagles scored a pair of unearned runs in the top of the first with Brittany Baldwin scoring on a Blue Devils' error and Sydney Murphy coming in on Grace Mindrup's sacrifice fly. UWL added two runs in the top of the second as Jessie Carignan scored on Murphy's RBI single and Jenny Gallagher coming in after a UW-Stout error.

In the top of the fourth, UWL tallied four runs on five hits to take a 8-0 advantage. Murphy had an RBI on bunt; Stephanie Cole an RBI single and Mindrup a two-run single. UW-Stout got on the board in the bottom of the fifth as Katelyn Schobert scored an unearned run on a UWL error. Ashley Lindstrom's RBI single in the top of the sixth gave UWL a 9-1 lead before Kaylee Francois' RBI double for UW-Stout in the bottom of the sixth made it 9-2.

Caitlyn Hughes (10-5) earned the win, pitching 2.2 innings in relief, allowing three hits and two runs (one earned). Jessie Carignan started for UWL, going 3.1 innings, allowing two hits and two walks while striking out two. Katie Klein pitched the final inning, recording two strikeouts.

UW-Whitewater, the visitor in its 4-2 victory over UWL Saturday, opened the scoring in the top of the first as Caitlin Catino scored on Haley Morelli's RBI single. The Warhawks took a 4-0 lead with three runs in the top of the sixth on Nicole Neitzel's run-scoring double and Kelly Berglund's two-run single.

UWL scored a pair of two-out runs in the bottom of the seventh after leaving the bases-loaded in the fifth. Gallagher scored after Lindstrom was hit-by-pitch with the bases-loaded to cut the lead to 4-1. Mindrup then drew a bases-loaded walk to score Baldwin. The Eagles left the bases-loaded as Sarah Mueller popped out to end the game.

Hughes suffered the loss for UWL, pitching 5.2 innings, allowing three hits, three runs and four walks while striking out two. Klein went 1.1 innings, allowing two hits and one run with one strikeout. The Eagles finished with six hits, leaving 10 runners on base.  Baldwin finished 2-for-4 for UWL.

Julia Camardo (11-2) earned the win for UW-Whitewater, going 7.0 innings, allowing six hits, two runs and one walk while striking out seven. Five different players had a hit for the Warhawks.