FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The Lourdes softball team (14-18, 9-11) defeated the Lawrence Tech Blue Devils (27-14, 13-7) in the WHAC Tournament Quarterfinals by a final score of 6-3 on Saturday afternoon.

After beating the sixth-seeded Michigan-Dearborn Wolverines, the seventh-seeded Gray Wolves rose to the occasion against the third-seeded Blue Devils. Lawrence Tech was one of the few teams in the tournament Lourdes never beat in the regular season, but they got their vengeance on Saturday to advance to the WHAC Semifinals.

Lourdes will rematch the pod's host-school, Indiana Tech, on Sunday at 1pm for the semis. The Gray Wolves must beat the Warriors twice in a row to advance to the WHAC Tournament Championship on May 1.

The other semifinal matchup is #5 Cornerstone against regular season champion Madonna. Similar to Lourdes' path, Cornerstone lost their first round matchup to Northwestern Ohio, but proceeded to beat Aquinas and then Northwestern Ohio in a rematch to reach the semis. The Golden Eagles will have to beat Madonna twice to reach the championship.

If Lourdes were to make the championship and Madonna emerged as the other pod's winner, Lourdes would automatically receive a bid to the NAIA National Championship tournament.

Lourdes started off the scoring against Lawrence Tech with an RBI double by Olivia Rompf in the first inning. The next batter was Skylar Mitchell, who hit a two-run RBI single to quickly extend the lead to 3-0.

Although a Natilee Pridemore solo home run in the second inning temporarily halted the Gray Wolves momentum, an RBI-double by Jessyca Smith brought it right back to Lourdes.

Ashley Stafford gave Lawrence Tech some hope with two RBI hits over the final three innings to give them three total runs. However, Lourdes extended their lead to 6-3 with a Robyn Ryan sixth inning single.

Olivia Rompf continues to have a red-hot month of April, ending the game with a 3-for-4 performance. The Heidelberg transfer's average is .312 and she's third on the team in hits. 

On the mound, Mallori Bradley and Cassi Kieper split the game fairly evenly, giving up just four hits each.

You can follow along with the Gray Wolves' postseason run by clicking on the livestream and live stats icons on the Indiana Tech game in the team schedule page.