MANKATO, Minn. – The Yellowjacket softball team entered the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) tournament as the circuit's No. 3 seed, and Thursday, opened the conference tournament with a mild upset of No. 2 seed Minnesota Morris.
 
Their reward for the win was a date with Bethany Lutheran, the UMAC regular season softball champion and the tournament's No. 1 seed. The Yellowjackets and Vikings met in a three-game series to close the regular season last weekend, with the Vikings taking two-of-three games.
 
With a win, the Yellowjackets would advance to the championship Saturday. A loss, meanwhile, would mean the Yellowjackets would move into elimination mode, and need to keep winning games to save their season.
 
It looked dicey in the early going, but the Yellowjackets were able to come from behind and defeat the top-seeded Vikings, 5-4 at Thomas Park.
 
The win puts the Yellowjackets (25-13) in the driver's seat of the UMAC tournament. As the only remaining unbeaten team, the Yellowjackets' next opponent would need to defeat them twice, while the Yellowjackets would need to win just once to claim the conference title.
 
Bethany Lutheran looked like it was in command of things, jumping out to a 4-0 lead through four innings. The Yellowjackets tied things with a four-run fifth inning, then got the eventual game-winning run courtesy of a Bethany Lutheran error in the top of the sixth.
 
Karen Balabon (Elk River, Minn./Elk River) led off the inning with a single and Carly Stuckmayer (Delano, Minn./Delano Senior) bunted her to second. The Bethany Lutheran infielder then threw to second to try and double up Balabon, only to have her throw go all the way to the outfield fence, allowing Balabon to come all the way home with the eventual game-winning run.
 
Samantha Swartz (Antigo, Wis./Antigo) came on in relief of starter Bella Garley (Albuquerque, N.M./Porter (Tex.)) in the fourth inning and went the rest of the way, scattering four hits in four innings of work to get the win and improve her record on the year to 8-3.
 
Game Notes

• Each team had nine hits in the game.
• Three Yellowjackets – Indigo Fish (Superior, Wis./Superior Senior), Balabon and Swartz led the way with two hits apiece.
• Bethany Lutheran scored twice in the first inning, getting a run on an Emily Doyle groundout and another on a Haley Stockman double.
• Doyle plated a run on a sacrifice fly in the third and in the fourth an error on an Ana Christofferson ball gave the Vikings a 4-0 lead.
• In the fifth the Yellowjackets broke through when Fish doubled to left center, scoring Stuckmayer and Zoe Thomson (Le Sueur, Minn./Le Sueur-Henderson).
• Swartz followed with a single to right center, scoring Fish and Ellie Macal (Winona, Minn./Cotter) to tie the game.
• Fish has multiple hits in four consecutive games.
• Swartz is hitting .632 (12-for-19) over her last 10 games. She has scored nine runs and driven in seven during that stretch.
• Garley started in the circle and allowed four runs on five hits in three-plus innings. She got a no-decision.

The Yellowjackets now advance to the championship game of the UMAC tournament, where they once again face Bethany Lutheran, who advanced out of elimination play Friday. The first pitch is set for noon Saturday at Thomas Park.
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