ROCHESTER, Minn. – Sophomore Erica McCullough allowed just one hit as the Concordia-St. Paul softball team (30-27) defeated Winona State (38-16) 9-0 in five innings to move on in the NSIC Softball Tournament.
 
The Golden Bears will face St. Cloud State tomorrow at 1 p.m. with the winner advancing to the semifinals against the loser of Augustana and Minnesota Duluth.
 
The win secured a 10^th 30-win season under head coach Bob Bartel and their second in as many years as they also secured a 14^th season with a record above .500 during his tenure. CSP also snapped a 17-game losing streak to the Warriors as their first win against WSU since Apr. 26, 2012 moved their record to 14-37 all-time.
 
McCullough (9-7) made life difficult for one of the top offenses in the NSIC as she did not allow a hit until a one-out single off the bat of Logan Anderson in the fifth and she did not allow a runner to advance past first base the entire contest. The complete game shutout was the third of her career and first of the season as she limited WSU to just one hit and one walk in the game.
 
The Concordia offense also got the best of the Warrior pitching staff as they hammered out 12 hits and nine runs in the win. Eight of CSP's nine hitters collected hits in the win as the 5-9 hitters in the order finished an impressive 9-14 (.643) with a pair of homers, a double and six driven in in the victory. Avery Johnson, Taylor Griffin, Sydney Pelzer and Annalise Scamehorn delivered two hits apiece as Johnson and Griffin each went deep.
 
The Golden Bears opened the scoring in the top of the second with a solo home run off the bat of Avery Johnson, her eighth of the season, before Taylor Griffin doubled the lead an inning later with her fifth home run of the year.
 
After another zero from McCullough, CSP broke the game open in the fourth. Concordia saw eight of the first nine hitters of the inning reach base safely as Johnson, Scamehorn, Danni Sharum, Alexus Houston and Grace Beseman contributed run-scoring singles during that span before Pelzer capped it off with one of her own with two outs.
 
McCullough had more than enough run support to invoke the run rule as she coaxed three fly ball outs in the bottom of the fourth before working around the one-out single in the fifth to slam the door.