Wayne State 4 Northern State 0

            Senior right fielder Kaiti Williams became the all-time runs batted in leader at Wayne State, going 2 for 3 with a homer, two RBI and three runs scored, to lead the Wildcats in a 4-0 win over Northern State Thursday afternoon in the opening round of the Northern Sun Conference Softball Tournament played at Sherman Park in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  WSC is now 34-19 and advances to the winner's bracket semi-final Friday at noon while Northern State drops to 32-21 and plays an elimination game at 4 p.m. Thursday afternoon.
            The Wildcats got off to a quick start with Williams making history in the first inning as Lexie Loos led off the game with a single to second base.  One batter later, Williams, a Papillion-LaVista South graduate, produced a two-run blast over the fence in left center field giving WSC a 2-0 lead.
            The two RBI's moved Williams to 144, breaking the all-time school record of 143 set by Jennifer Radley from 2008-11.
            WSC added another run in the third inning thanks to Williams.  She led off the inning with a single to second base and later scored on a Melanie Alyea infield single to put the 'Cats in front 3-0.
            Williams added an insurance run for the Wildcats in the fifth inning to make the score 4-0 as she led off with a walk, moved to second on a Kelcie Bormann single, stole third and scored when Sam O'Brien reached on a NSU fielding error for the final run of the game.
            WSC had seven hits in the win while holding Northern State to five.  Williams led the 'Cats at the plate, going 2 for 3 with a homer and single along with two RBI and three runs scored.  Junior center fielder Lexie Loos went 2 for 3 with one run scored, producing her 30^th multi-hit game of the season for WSC. 
            Other hitters for the Wildcats included Melanie Alyea with an RBI single while Alyssa Schropp and Kelcie Bormann each added singles in the win.
            Bormann was the winning pitcher for Wayne State, improving to 19-8 on the season.  Junior Cassy Miller worked the opening inning, allowing one hit with one strikeout.  Bormann then pitched the remaining six innings, charged with four hits while striking out five and issuing no walks.
            Wayne State will face either #1 seed Augustana or #10 seed Southwest Minnesota State Friday at noon in the winner's bracket semi-final in Sioux Falls.