FLORENCE, Ala. | The University of Alabama in Huntsville softball team put itself in the driver's seat at the 2016 NCAA South 1 Regional on Friday, defeating top-seed and nationally-ranked No. 3 North Alabama 4-2 at the UNA Softball Complex. The Chargers improve to 40-15 on the season, while UNA drops to 50-6.
 
UAH will now advance to the championship game on Saturday which is slated for a 1:30 p.m. start and will need just one win while the yet to be determined opponent would have to win twice.
 
A berth to the NCAA South Super Regional will be on the line.
 
The Chargers have now won 40 games for a 19th straight season, and the team set the program's single-season record for walks by drawing three to move to 235 on the year which breaks the 2006 mark of 234.
 
Strong pitching from Tyler Harrison combined with some timely hitting resulted in Friday's win as the junior hurler won for the 21st time this season, and the victory was also her 21st complete game of the season. Harrison worked around six hits and four walks while giving up just the two runs.
 
It was Harrison, too, that came through with UAH's first clutch hit as she singled in the top of the first with Brianna Sullivan at second after walking and moving over on a sacrifice bunt by Savannah Smith, but Sullivan's run would be matched by UNA in the first as the Lions tied the contest at 1-1.
 
The score remained that way until the fifth when Jada Hayes drew a key two-out walk and scurried over to second on a wild pitch, allowing  her to score when from the nine-spot in the UAH lineup Haley Thompson doubled into left-center to put UAH up 2-1.
 
An infield single from Sullivan as the lineup turned over plated Thompson while giving the Chargers a two-run advantage.
 
The hosts matched UAH's two-out double in the bottom half to get one of the runs back, but more small ball from the tournament's fifth seed in the top of the sixth would reproduce the two-run advantage.
 
Harrison led the inning off by being hit by a pitch and was then lifted for pinch-runner Kelly Campbell who moved down to second on another wild pitch. Abby Roberts then sacrificed Campbell over to third before Taylor Wascavage executed a perfect squeeze bunt to plate UAH's fourth run of the game.
 
North Alabama was able to put a runner on base in each of the sixth and seventh innings but could do nothing with them as Harrison shut the door for the win.
 
The Chargers outhit UNA 7-6 in the contest, and in addition to the approach at the plate that yielded three walks, no UAH player struck out in the contest – quite a feat against UNA's Raven Cole who owned 146 strikeouts entering the game.