East and West followed different scripts Wednesday to reach the same place in the Cook Inlet Conference softball tournament.
East cruised past Chugiak 6-0 while West pulled out a taut 6-5 win over South to emerge as the tournament's only undefeated teams after two days of action.
The teams will meet in a winners' bracket game at 7:45 p.m. Thursday at Albrecht Fields.
Wednesday's West-South game reached the time limit in the fifth inning, which ended in a 5-5 tie thanks to a leadoff home run by West's Julia Merritt.
The sixth inning was played under international rules, in which each half-inning begins with a runner on second base in an effort to speed up the game.
South, the visiting team, loaded the bases in the top of the sixth but stranded all three runners.
West started the bottom of the sixth with Ashton Jessee aboard at second. Jessee moved to third on a bunt single by Lesley Bingham and scored on an overthrow to first base.
Merritt drove in three runs with two hits and Bingham had a pair of hits for West, which rallied from a 5-3 deficit. South scored all five of its runs without the benefit of a hit -- West's Lauren Syrup allowed three hits and no-hit the Wolverines through four innings.
In the day's other winners-bracket game, East blanked Chugiak 6-0 behind Sydney Smith's two-hit, five strikeout gem. Smith also went 2 for 2 and scored twice in the six-inning game.
Nicolette Dabbs smacked a three-run double for the T-birds.
In an elimination game Wednesday, Dimond received four shutout innings from pitcher Katie Hanson to defeat Eagle River 12-0. Hanson fanned eight bringing her total strikeouts for the season to 103.
Haley Montagna went 3 for 3, including a two-run home run and a double, and had five RBIs for the Lynx.
Anchorage Daily News