MATTOON, Ill. -- Lake Land eliminated Wabash Valley from the NJCAA Region 24 softball tournament on Saturday with a sweep of a first-round series.
The No. 17-ranked Lakers (48-10) advanced to this weekend's Final Four in Belleville with 10-6 and 12-6 wins over the Lady Warriors, who finished the season with a 21-38 record.
WVC battled back in both games. In the opener, Lake Land led, 6-0, after four innings, only to see the Lady Warriors get it all back with a six-run fifth to tie the game, 6-6. The Lakers did not gain control until their last at bat in the sixth, when they scored four runs then held off Wabash Valley in the seventh for a 10-6 win.
In the nitecap, after the hosts grabbed an early lead with four runs in the first inning, Wabash Valley struck for six runs in the top of the second. The Lakers responded with three in the third to regain the lead, 7-6 and they went from there, scoring the game's final five runs for a 12-6 victory and the series win, two games to none.
Adie Nolly hit her third home run of the season, a two-run shot, in the fifth inning of the opener to get the Lady Warriors started on the road back from a six-run deficit. Gracee Sullivan added a line drive to center that brought in two more runs. An RBI double by Jayley Akers, and a ground out good for an RBI by Marisa Lane tied the game.
Wabash Valley duplicated that feat with a six-run frame in the finale. Sullivan had the biggest blow with a 3-run homer with two outs in the second to put the Lady Warriors ahead at the time. It was Sullivan's seventh long ball of the year.
Ahead of her in the order, Kamille Johnson delivered a two-run double, and Taylor Wilke also added a double that scored a run.
Sullivan, Akers, and Johnson each had multiple hits in the game. Akers was 3-for-4 in the first game as well.
In the circle, Demi Wolfe started the first game, and Lexi Burris the nitecap, though those two and Kyrsten White saw action in both games.
The winner of this weekend's Final Four, otherwise known as the Central District tournament, advances to the 16-team NJCAA Division I national tournament, which begins on May 23 in Oxford, Alabama.