Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 As the sun went down in Whitewater, Wis., on Saturday night, the Riteway bus carrying the Carthage College softball team was headed for the Hampton Inn in Elkhorn, Wis., and not back to Kenosha.  That's only part of the good news on the day.  No. 22 Carthage (33-11) advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Division III Softball Championship Great Lakes Regional for the second year in a row with a 7-0, fourth-round win over No. 24 Wisconsin-Eau Claire (28-9) on Saturday, May 11 at Wisconsin-Whitewater's Van Steenderen Softball Diamond in Whitewater, Wis.  
 
The other good news is that the Lady Reds won't have to see anymore of CCIW-opponent Illinois Wesleyan University after eliminating the Titans (32-11) from regional play, 4-3, in a third-round game.  The Carthage-Illinois Wesleyan game was the fourth meeting this year between the two teams.  The Titans won the two regular-season games before losing to Carthage in the CCIW Softball Tournament. 
 
The Lady Reds, seeded fourth in the regional, lost their first-round game on Thursday, May 9, 6-4, to fifth-seeded and No. 18 Luther College (29-9).  On the same side of the eight-team regional bracket, top-seeded and No. 11 Wisconsin-Whitewater (32-5) defeated eighth-seeded Finlandia (25-7), 6-1, in Thursday's first game.  On the other side of the bracket, CCIW-member and sixth-seeded North Central College (33-10) knocked off third-seeded and No. 24 Wisconsin-Eau Claire (26-8), 12-10, on Thursday, with second-seeded, CCIW-member and No. 21 Illinois Wesleyan University (32-9) outlasting seventh-seeded Benedictine University (Ill., 26-13), 7-6, on Friday, May 10. 
 
Carthage eliminated Finlandia University (25-8), 10-2, in Friday's second game.  Wisconsin-Eau Claire (27-8) eliminated Benedictine (Ill., 26-14), 5-1, in Friday's third game, with Luther (30-9) edging Wisconsin-Whitewater (32-6) by a 5-4 margin in the final game of the second day.  On Saturday, May 11, North Central (Ill., 34-10) defeated Illinois Wesleyan (32-10), 7-4, and Wisconsin-Eau Claire (28-8) eliminated the host team, Wisconsin-Whitewater (32-7), 4-0.  Luther (31-9) defeated North Central (Ill., 34-11), 4-1, in Saturday's fourth game, the battle between the two undefeated teams. 

On Sunday, May 12, Carthage (33-11) takes on conference-opponent North Central (Ill., 34-11) in a Noon semifinal game, with the winner advancing to play Luther (31-9) in the championship round, beginning at 2 p.m.  Should Luther lose that game, a final championship-round game would be played on Monday, May 13 at 10 a.m.
 
In the Wisconsin-Eau Claire game, Carthage took a 1-0 lead in the opening inning when Bryanna Heckel scored from second on a throwing error by Blugolds shortstop Taylor Pierce.  The Lady Reds made it 2-0 in the fifth when Jen Precht scored on a fielding error by Pierce.  Abby Hanson (Jr., Winthrop Harbor, Ill./Zion-Benton Township) hit the first pitch of the sixth inning over the leftfield fence for a solo home run and a 3-0 lead.  One out later, Alyse Mikolas (Jr., Kenosha, Wis./Bradford) hit one over the centerfield fence, and the score was 4-0.  The Lady Reds added three more runs in the seventh to make it a 7-0 game.  Katie Morman and Olivia Scott singled in runs, and Alyse Mikolas hit a sacrifice fly to the shortstop for the final, 7-0 margin.
 
Pitcher Krystina Leazer (Sr., Des Plaines, Ill./Elk Grove, 24-5) was brilliant, allowing a double to Deanna Gilane in the third inning for the only Blugolds hit, walking one and striking out eight.  Bryanna Heckel and Corinne Sheley each had two hits for the Lady Reds.  Emma Wishau (10-4) took the loss.
 
In the win over Illinois Wesleyan, Carthage's Corinne Sheley (Jr., Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) broke a scoreless duel  with a two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the third, giving the Lady Reds a 2-0 lead.  The Titans tied the game, 2-2, in the fourth on an RBI-grounder by Hannah Bowen and a sacrifice fly by Chloe Montgomery.  Carthage re-gained the lead, 4-2, in the fourth on an infield error with the bases loaded and a sacrifice fly by Jen Precht.   Illinois Wesleyan cut the lead to 4-3 in the fifth on an RBI-single by Keri Leach, and that margin held up for Carthage.  The Lady Reds only had five hits off two Titan pitchers, and Katie Morman (Jr., Kenosha, Wis./Somers-Shoreland Lutheran) had two of those, including a double. 
 
Krystina Leazer (Sr., Des Plaines, Ill./Elk Grove, 23-5) limited Illinois Wesleyan to three runs on six hits, three walks and six strikeouts.  Molly McCready (12-4) took the loss and allowed four runs on four hits and walk over four innings.  Alyssa Vorel blanked Carthage on one hit over the final two frames.

"There's a pretty good rivalry going between Carthage and Illinois Wesleyan," admitted Carthage coach Amy Gillmore, " so knocking them out of the regional is a little bit extra-special.  We're obviously pretty familiar with North Central, who we play on Sunday, and if we play our game, we'll be fine.  We had our bats going today, Krystina Leazer was fantastic, and we took advantage of Wisconsin-Eau's mistakes.  Everybody is contributing, and it's always somebody different.  We got two great games from Krystina Leazer, and we still have a chance to win this thing."