Albany, Georgia-In a matchup between the two regular season division winners, it was the East Division Champion Edward Waters that came out on top 4-0 over West Division Champion Spring Hill in a Winner's Bracket matchup at the Cricket SIAC Softball Championship Wednesday afternoon at the Gordon Sports Complex. The victory now pushes the Lady Tigers to the Championship Round of the tournament, where their opponent will have to beat EWU twice to take the title.

Edward Waters (42-7, 19-3 SIAC) and Spring Hill (23-22, 17-2 SIAC) went blow for blow, holding each other scoreless for an eye-popping 11 innings. The dam finally burst open in the top half of the 12th inning. Katie Goodin engineered a walk to lead off the inning, followed by back-to-back bunt singles from Caitlynne Lamug and Kylah Gardner loaded the bases for the Lady Tigers. Jazmine Lamug was hit by a pitch to bring the first run of the contest home and giving EWU a 1-0 lead. In the next at bat, Tiara Peters hit an RBI sacrifice fly to score, Caitlynne Lamug to double up the EWU lead. Brooke Rice next connected on a two-RBI double that added two more critical runs for the Purple & Orange, giving them a 4-0 lead.

In the bottom of the 12th, Spring Hill started with back-to-back fly ball outs. The Badgers were able to stay alive in their next at bat with an double and an EWU throwing error allowing the runner to advance to third with two outs. The Lady Tigers were able to induce a ground ball out to close out the contest and send them to the Championship Round. 

Kylah Gardner aled the way at the plate for Edward Waters, going 2-for-4 with a run scored, while Caitlynne Lamug finished 2-for-5 with a run scored. Second Team All-SIAC pitcher Jodasea Peterson had a gutsy effort in the circle for Edward Waters, recording a complete game, three-hit shutout. With her four strikeouts on the day, Peterson eclipsed the century mark for strikeouts with 102 on the season, moving into second place on the EWU All-Time single season strikeout list, behind Milani Sablan's 107 strikout season in 2022. 

Edward Waters will go for their first conference championship since the 2015 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Tournament Championship. The Lady Tigers will face either Spring Hill, Tuskegee, or Albany State in the Championship Round on Thursday at 2:00pm.

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