La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse softball team defeated UW-Whitewater, 4-0, in its opening game of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Tournament (presented by Culver's) Friday afternoon at North Campus Field. The Eagles, the tournament's top-seed, improves to 26-8 overall while the fourth-seeded Warhawks falls to 20-18. 

UWL, winners of 14 in a row, advance in the winners bracket and will face third-seed UW-Eau Claire Saturday at 10 a.m. UW-Eau Claire advanced with a 9-0 win over second-seed UW-Oshkosh. UWL's 14-game winning streak is the second-longest in school history behind the 21 straight victories in 2010.  

UW-Whitewater will face UW-Oshkosh in an elimination game at noon Saturday.

The Eagles wasted no time getting on the scoreboard as they got a two run home run from Jordyn McCormack in the bottom of the first inning. Kyra Lard led off the inning with a single and came in to score on McCormack's sixth home run of the season. UWL would extend its lead to 3-0 in the second inning on Lard's fourth home run of the season. The home run streak for the Eagles would continue in the third inning as Emily Knight hit her fourth  of the season to give UWL a 4-0 lead. 
 
The Eagles would threaten again in the fifth inning with a one-out single by Knight and a two-out single by Anna Jensen. But Warhawks' pitcher Kate Cleveland got a strikeout to end the inning. UW-Whitewater loaded the bases in the seventh inning with two outs but UWL's Elise Weinzierl would force a groundout to third base to end the game.

Weinzierl, this week's Wilson/National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Pitcher of the Week, improved to 12-2 on the season with Friday's win. She picked up her sixth complete game shutout of the season, allowing four hits and one walk while striking out five. Weinzierl has not given up a run in 15 consecutive innings as she now has a WIAC-best 1.32 earned run average.  Her 12 wins is also tops in the WIAC. 

Offensively, the Eagles were led by Lard who finished 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored. Knight finished 2-for-2 with an RBI and run while McCormack was 2-for-4 with two RBI and one run .
Rhiann Dick (5-5) suffered the loss for the Warhawks, allowing two runs on three hits in 1.0 inning of work. UW-Whitewater finished with four hits including singles from Meghan Dunning, Kennedy Cox, Sophia Kinjerski and Grace Wickman. 

The WIAC Championship follows a double elimination format.  The championship winner will be declared the conference champion and earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.  The NCAA Division III Regionals will be held Thursday, May 12 through Sunday, May 15 with the NCAA Division III Super Regionals scheduled for Friday, May 20 through Sunday, May 22. 

The NCAA Division III Championships are Thursday, May 26 through Monday, May 30 in Salem, Virginia.