Pella, Iowa - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse softball team earned a 5-1 win over host Central College (Iowa) in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Regional Saturday afternoon at the Kuyper Athletic Complex. The Eagles improve to 27-18 on the season and advance to the regional championship game versus Lake Forest College (Ill.) on Sunday, May 12 at 1 p.m. UWL needs to defeat Lake Forest (Ill.) twice to win the regional title and advance to next week's NCAA III Super-Regional.   

Lake Forest (Ill.) advanced to the title game with a 3-2 victory over UWL earlier Saturday. 

Central (Iowa), ranked 15th in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA), finishes its season at 27-10. 

UWL, the home team in the game, took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth. Emily Knight singled and was replaced by pinch-runner Lou Sciortino. After a sacrifice bunt by Sabrina Scardamaglia moved Sciortino to third, Mia Schmidtke followed with a two-run home run. It was her school record 12th home run of the year, breaking the single-season record of 11 by Liz Bradley in 2008.

Central (Iowa) cut the lead to 2-1 in the top of the sixth, but stranded a pair of runners in the inning. Sara Tallman's RBI single scored Paige Roehlk for The Dutch. Central (Iowa) had runners on second on third with no outs, but Maddie Muelken retired the final three batters of the inning. 

The Eagles tallied three runs in the bottom of the sixth. Knight's RBI single scored Katie Block for a 3-1 lead and Schmidtke's two-run double knocked in Knight and Kathryn Vander Schaaf. 
 

Caitlyn Hughes (15-4) earned the win, pitching 5.0 innings, allowing three hits and one run while striking out four. Muelken picked up her fourth save of the season, going 2.0 innings, allowing two hits with one strikeout. The Eagles had nine hits in the game with Scardamaglia, Schmidtke and Knight each finishing with two. Schmidtke had four RBI.

Mariah Fritz (20-9) took the loss for Central (Iowa), going 5.2 innings, allowing nine hits, five runs and three walks. The Dutch had five hits. 

UWL is making its sixth career appearance in the NCAA III Championships, including fifth under 14th-year head coach Chris Helixon.  The Eagles hosted the NCAA III Regional in 2017, finishing 2-2.  UWL went 0-2 in the 2009 regional at Simpson College (Iowa), 2-2 in 2010 at UW-Whitewater and 1-2 in 2011 at UW-Eau Claire.  UWL's first appearance in the national tournament was in 1986 when the team finished 2-2 at the UW-Whitewater Regional.