Lakewood, N.J. - #1-seed Georgian Court University has earned the opportunity to defend its 2021 crown as the Lions, with Friday's 6-4 come-from-behind victory over #2 Wilmington University, advance to the championship round of this year's Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Softball Tournament.

The royal-and-gold will take on either the Wildcats or #3 Caldwell University Saturday at noon (time subject to change). Wilmington led the Cougars by a score of 6-3 heading into the sixth inning this afternoon, but the skies opened up over Lakewood, forcing the contest to be suspended until at least 10:00 a.m. Saturday. The winner will move on to the title game vs. GCU.

After a pair of scoreless frames to start the action, WU snapped the stalemate in the top of the third when Lauren Lopez (Gr.-Burbank, Calif.) laced an RBI single to right to make it 1-0 'Cats. A towering home run off the stick of Alyssa Herrera tied the contest at 1-1 in the home half of the fourth. Wilmington quickly wrenched away the lead in the following half frame as Lexi Moore (So.-Dover, Del.) ripped a ribbie single to center to go up, 2-1, in the top of the fifth.

That surplus would also be short-lived as Georgian Court (38-13) pounced for four runs on four hits in the bottom of the stanza. Alyssa Rue, with her 10th dinger of the season, evened the score with a solo shot to left. Adriana Mungo made it 3-2 GCU with a run-inducing two-bagger to left-center before Herrera put an exclamation mark on the outburst with another blast (5th of season), this time a two-run shot, to increase the Lions' lead to 5-2. Elisa Lopez brought home a crucial insurance tally with a pinch-hit single in the sixth as Wilmington added a pair comeback digits in the seventh climb within two.

Mikayla Gilgert (25-7), the CACC Pitcher of the Year, went the distance once again to earn the victory in the circle (7.0, 10 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 K). Wilmington's Kylee Gunkel (Fr.-Highland, Md.) permitted six runs (5 ER) on six hits (7 K) over her 4.2 innings of work in the setback.