The University of North Georgia softball team is on its way to play for its first-ever NCAA Division II National Championship against Dixie State (Utah).
The No. 6 Nighthawks emerged out of the loser's bracket after winning two elimination games Saturday and another two on Sunday to make the national title tilt.
North Georgia bested Shorter College 8-2 and 7-5 to advance.
UNG junior Courtney Poole set a new school record for wins in a single season, now sitting at 46-4; as a team, the Nighthawks have now tied the single-season win total in program history at 53-8.
North Georgia also won 53 games in 2011, the team's last trip to the Division II softball championship.
GAME 11—North Georgia 8, Shorter 2
The Nighthawks scored four in the first, and raced out to a 5-0 lead by the end of two. They cruised to an 8-2 win, forcing an "if necessary" game.
Meagan May, Kim McMillan and Jessica Finch each went 3-for-4 in an offense that cranked out 14 hits. McMillan knocked in two runs, while Poole picked up her 45th win with a complete game effort.
Poole allowed two runs on seven hits with four strikeouts.
The first two runs of the game came from an RBI fielder's choice off the bat of Ansley Phillips anda run-scoring single from Finch. An illegal pitch brought home a third run, Katie Block dropped down a bunt for the fourth run on a squeeze play.
MacMillan slapped an RBI single to bring home the fifth run in the second.
Shorter answered with back-to-back RBI singles by Kendall Jackson and Ericka Bynum in the bottom of the third.
The Nighthawks squelched the threat from there, tacking on single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh.
Poole finished the game with four strikeouts.
GAME 12—North Georgia 7, Shorter 5
Much like the first semifinal, North Georgia jumped out to an early lead. They stumbled down the stretch after failing to pick up a run-rule win in the bottom of the fifth, but held off a late rally for a 7-5 victory.
After a pair of two-out singles by Tiffanie Burns and Phillips, Finch blasted a three-run home run over the left field fence for the early 3-0 advantage for the Nighthawks.
UNG tacked on two more in the fourth thanks to a two-out error, and added two more in the sixth on RBI singles by Mayand and Meredith Heyer for a 7-0 lead.
Three Nighthawk errors let Shorter back into the game, scoring two unearned runs to cut the defecit to 7-2 in the sixth.
Bynum got the Hawks even closer with a three-run shot in the seventh to make it 7-5 with two outs, but Poole collected herself and induced a fly ball to center to complete the sweep.
Poole struck out three and walked one in the complete game outing.Ericka Bynum made things interesting in the seventh. With two outs, she launched a three-run home run to left to make it a two-run ball game, but Poole regrouped and induced a fly ball to center for the final out.
Poole (46-4) allowed just the three earned runs on the Bynum homer. She struck out six and walked one in a complete-game outing.
