La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse softball team advanced to the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Championship (presented by Culver's) with a 2-1 win in 11 innings over 18th-ranked UW-Oshkosh Saturday afternoon at North Campus Field. The Eagles improve to 27-9 on the season while the Titans drop to 26-10. 

UWL will play UW-Eau Claire in the championship game Sunday, May 8 at 10 a.m. The Eagles would need to defeat the Blugolds twice on Sunday. UW-Eau Claire, 2-0 in the tournament, advanced to the championship game with a 9-3 victory over UWL in Saturday's first game. 

The winner of Sunday's championship earns the WIAC's automatic bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Championships.

UWL took a 1-0 lead over UW-Oshkosh in the top of the first inning Saturday. Jordyn McCormack was hit-by-pitch with one out and stole second. She advanced to third on Hailey Jibben's single, who was replaced by pinch-runner Emily Lyman. With Emily Knight at the plate, Lyman took off from first and on the throw down to second, McCormack stole home for the first run of the game. 
  UW-Oshkosh tied the game in the bottom of hhe fourth. Hannah Ritter reached on UWL fielding error to lead-off the inning and was replaced by pinch-runner Lizzie Slobedicki. Morgan Rau singled with Slobedicki advancing to second. After a line-out and strikeout, Sydney Rau singled to left field to score Slobodecki to the game at 1-1. 

The Titans left a pair of runners on base in the bottom of the fifth, seventh and eighth innings.  The Eagles left two runners on base in the ninth. 

Starting pitchers Elise Weinzierl for UWL and Maddie Fink for UW-Oshkosh kept the game tied at 1-1 until the top of the 11th. UWL's Kyra Lard reached on a fielding error to start the top of the 11th. She went to second on McCormack's sacrifice bunt. Kendra Leis was intentionally walked for the second time in the game to put runners on first and second. After a strikeout, Knight delivered the game-winning single through the left side to score in Lard and give UWL a 2-1 lead. 

UW-Oshkosh was retired in order in the bottom of the 11th. 

Weinzerl (13-2) earned the complete-game victory, pitching 11.0 innings, allowing 10 hits, one run (unearned) and two walks while striking out four. Five different players recorded a hit for the Eagles. 

Fink (10-6) suffered the loss for UW-Oshkosh, going 11.0 innings, allowing five hits, two runs (one earned) and thre walks with eight strikeouts. The Titans totaled 10 hits with Hannah Ritter, Sydney Rau and Zoe Malone each finishing with two.