SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – For the second straight year, Augustana and Winona State met in the NSIC/US Bank Softball Tournament Championship game. The second-seeded Warriors came out on top for just the second straight year, defeating top-seeded Augustana 4-1 on Saturday afternoon at Sherman Park.
 
Augustana advanced to the championship game with a 6-5 come-from-behind win over third seed Minnesota State earlier on Saturday. Augustana will enter the NCAA Tournament at 50-9 on the season. The Vikings have won 50-plus games in a season nine times in program history, including three times under ninth-year head coach Gretta Melsted.
 
The Vikings were held to just four hits in the championship game as Winona State's Hanna Lythberg earned the win striking out three and forcing 15 ground ball outs.
 
Karlee Koopman, making just her fifth start of the season, held the Warriors in check for most of the afternoon striking out two and allowing just one earned run over seven innings.
 
Augustana took its only lead of the game in the bottom of the first inning when Sarah Kennedy sent her NCAA-leading 25th double of the season down the right field line to score Caitlin Nichol, who led off the inning with a single, to give the Vikings a 1-0 lead.
 
Koopman and Lythberg locked into a pitcher's duel over the next two innings before the Warriors plated two runs on three hits in the top of the fourth to take a 2-1 lead. Ashley Walker singled up the middle to start the inning for the Warriors and moved up two bases on a wild pitch and a passed ball. Walker was stranded on third after two ground ball outs and a single but Natalie Kalmes singled to left field to drive in two and put her team up by one.
 
Mackenzie Alstott beat out an infield single in the bottom of the fifth inning, but that would be the last hit the Vikings were able to get in the game and the Warriors added two more on two hits and an error in the top of the seventh to take a 4-1 lead.
 
Augustana got a base runner when Jordan Schaffer was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the seventh but the Vikings were unable to break through on Lythberg.
 
Sarah Kennedy, Caitlin Nichol and Carley Pickett were all named to the NSIC All-Tournament Team.
 
Augustana was ranked No. 1 in all three NCAA Central Region rankings this season. The Vikings will learn their seed and opponent in the NCAA Central Region Tournament on the NCAA Division II Softball Selection show which will be aired Monday, May 4, at 9 a.m. on NCAA.com.