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The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater softball team punched its ticket to the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship series Thursday with a thrilling 2-1 victory over UW-Stevens Point in a conference tournament semifinal presented by Culver's at van Steenderen Softball Complex.
 
Leading off the bottom of the eighth with the score tied at 1-1, shortstop Meghan Dunning (Plainfield, Ill./South) hit the first pitch she saw over the center field fence to send the Warhawks to Saturday's best-of-three final at top-seeded UW-Oshkosh.
 
Marissa Adams (Le Roy, Ill./Le Roy) pitched a pair of scoreless innings in relief to earn the win and improve to 5-1 on the year. Rhiann Dick (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) started the game and allowed one run over six innings of work.
 
The Pointers (23-16) took the lead in the top of the fifth with a solo home run.
 
UW-Whitewater, which was held hitless until designated player Kennedy Cox (Janesville, Wis./Craig) led off the fifth inning with a single up the middle, tied the game in the bottom of the sixth. Centerfielder Vera Pflugradt (Lake Zurich, Ill./Stevenson) led off the inning with a base hit and was sacrificed to second by Dunning.
 
With two outs and Pflugradt at second, third baseman Meg Cohrs (Elburn, Ill./Kaneland) was intentionally walked, and first baseman Kaleigh O'Brien (Crystal Lake, Ill./Prairie Ridge) hit one through the left side to plate the tying run.
 
After a 1-2-3 top of the seventh from Adams, second baseman Delaney Becker (Tinley Park, Ill./Lincoln-Way East) reached on an error to start the bottom half of the frame, but UW-W was unable to put another runner on base, sending the game into extra innings.
 
Adams didn't allow a runner in the top of the eighth to set up Dunning's walk-off homer, her eighth of the year.
 
Saturday's best-of-three series begins at 12 p.m. in Oshkosh. If the two teams split Saturday's games, a third game will be played to decide the title.