Nevada women win two thrillers to reach WAC finals

FRESNO, Calif. - The Nevada softball team made life tough for itself when it fell into the losers' bracket of the WAC Tournament on Thursday.

That meant the Wolf Pack, ranked No. 24 in the nation, would have to three games in a span of just over 24 hours to have a chance to play for the WAC championship.

Consider it done.

After eliminating No. 5 seed New Mexico State on Thursday night, the Wolf Pack rallied for a pair of extra-inning wins Friday, eliminating No. 3 Hawaii and No. 4 Louisiana Tech in the process.

Now the second-seeded Wolf Pack has a chance to win the WAC Tournament on Saturday as it faces top seed Fresno State on the Bulldogs' home field. First pitch is at 2 p.m. and Nevada needs to beat Fresno State twice for the title.

The game, both games if necessary, will be heard live in Northern Nevada on Fox Sports Radio 1450 AM.

This is the fourth consecutive year that Nevada has played in the WAC Tournament championship game.

Nevada topped Hawai`i in a 10-inning thriller Friday afternoon, 4-2, and then scratched out a 2-1 victory in nine innings over Louisiana Tech Friday night.

Katie Holverson got the victory in both games and improved to 27-9 overall on the season. The WAC Pitcher of the Year struck out 13 and walked just two on the day.

In the first game, Nevada got on the board first with a run in the second inning as Michelle Beach drew a bases-loaded walk. The Pack had a chance for more but Danielle Patrick lined into an inning-ending double play.

Hawaii tied it up with a run in the fifth and the Rainbow Wahine moved ahead with a run in the sixth inning.

Nevada, trailing 2-1, was down to its final two outs in the seventh when Patrick tripled down the line in right field with one out. Noelle Micka followed with a single to right to plate Patrick and send the game into extra innings.

In the 10th, Jessica Haight slammed a two-out, two-run double to right-center, scoring Britton Murdock and Sam Bias to put the Pack up 4-2. Holverson closed it out with a 1-2-3 bottom of the inning to secure the win.

After a 30-minute break, the Pack took the field, this time as the home team, against Louisiana Tech - the team that send Nevada to the bottom bracket on Thursday with a 4-0 shutout.

The Lady Techsters got started early as WAC Player of the Year Amberly Waits slapped an RBI double in the first inning off Holverson. The unearned run would be all that Tech would get, however.

Nevada tied it in the bottom of the first as Murdock had an RBI double of her own to score Brittany Puzey, who had walked and stole second.

From that point on, Holverson and Tech starter Krissi Oliver traded goose eggs on the scoreboard. Each team would have a handful of scoring opportunities but neither was able to capitalize.

And that was the case until the ninth. Meghan Krieg replaced Oliver to begin the inning. After Beach lined out, Patrick doubled to right-center. Noelle Micka grounded out the pitcher and Patrick advance to third on the play.

With two outs, Kym Silagyi hit a ground ball to third. The Tech third baseman, Claire Gibson fielded it and set her feet to fire to first but the senior Silagyi beat the throw and Patrick scored to end it.

With the extra-inning games combined with a couple of extra-inning games last week against San Jose State, Nevada has played 64 innings of ball over the past week (seven games).