Whitewater, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse softball team earned its fourth Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Tournament Championship (presented by Culver's) with a 2-1 win in nine innings over UW-Stevens Point Saturday afternoon at UW-Whitewater's van Steenderen Field. The Eagles also won the league tournament title in 2009, 2010 and 2019. 

With the win, UWL improves to 28-13 and earns the WIAC's automatic bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Championships. The Eagles will be making their seventh appearance (1986, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2017, and 2019) in the NCAA III Tournament. The national tournament field will be announced at noon on Monday, May 15.

UW-Stevens Point drops to 28-13

The two teams played a scoreless first two innings before UW-Stevens Point scored in the top of the third. Sophia Heckendorf recorded a two-out single and scored an unearned run when Jesse Klicker reached on a UWL throwing error.

The score remained 1-0 until the bottom of the sixth inning when Jordyn McCormack led off with a triple to right field for UWL. With one out, Anna Jensen drove in McCormack to tie the game at 1-1 with a sacrifice fly.  The Eagles threatened in the bottom of the seventh as Jordan Schultz drove a ball to right field that looked as though it would be a home run; however, UW-Stevens Point's Sara Traxel made a leaping catch at the fence to extend the game. 
 

After the Pointers went down in order in the eighth, UWL once again threatened in the bottom of the inning. Abbey Bosch led off with a single and advanced to second when Kyra Lard reached on an error with no outs. UW-Stevens Point pitcher Ashley Zygowski induced a double play to end the Eagles threat. Traxel would record a one-out single for the Pointers in the ninth, but Eagles' pitcher Elise Weinzierl got back-to-back ground outs to end the inning.

Madi O'Brien led-off the bottom half of the ninth with a single for UWL and advanced to second on a one-out bunt single by Mariah Wick. Megan Scheidt then drew a walk to load the bases. Bosch reached on a fielder's choice as Ella Harris, who was pinch running for O'Brien, was thrown out at home for the second out of the inning. Lard then hit a hard grounder that ricocheted off the second baseman's glove for a single that scored Wick from third with the winning run.  
 

Weinzierl (14-6) earned the complete-game win, going 9.0 innings while allowing one unearned run on three hits and two walks while striking out six. It was Weinzierl's third complete-game of the WIAC Tournament as she earned all four wins. She allowed two earned runs seven runs in 26.0 innings of work. 

As a team, the Eagles finished with eight hits from seven different players. Scheidt finished 2-for-3 while Lard was 1-for-2 with two walks and the game-winning RBI. 

UW-Stevens Point finished with three hits including two from Traxel and one from Heckendorf. Zygowski (14-4) suffered the loss for the Pointers as she came on in relief to pitch the final 4.1 innings, allowing two runs on five hits and two walks while striking out one.