PETERSBURG, VA – And Chowan will get another shot at Winston-Salem State.

Perhaps two.

Alex Allen lifted a soft single behind first base with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning to drive in Liz Sill with the game-winning run as Chowan clipped Virginia State 3-2 in the CIAA's consolation round softball championship to earn a berth in Saturday afternoon's championship round.

The Hawks (34-18) will play Winston-Salem State in the CIAA Softball Championships title round. The Southern Division champion Rams scored four runs in the fifth inning to come from behind and beat Chowan 5-3 on Friday in the tournament's semifinals. Chowan needs to win twice to win the championship.

But the Hawks have a shot, and they can thank Virginia State (23-15) for the help. With one out in the eighth, shortstop Alyssa Winston committed a throwing error trying to record a force out at second base, allowing runners to reach first and third.

Lady Trojans starter Jessica Mattia, who worked out of several jams in the game, nearly got out of this one, too.  Allen, though, came through with a soft single down the first base line that fell between two VSU defenders to score Liz Sill.

Allie Kolezynski earned the win in relief of Christie Wright, who worked 7.2 innings. Kolezynski came on with runners on first and third and two outs in the top of the eighth and got Sharron Lipford to ground back to the pitcher's circle to quell the threat.

Liz Hipple got Chowan on the board in the second inning with a line drive home run over the right field fence, but Virginia State came right back to tie it with a run-scoring single off the bat of Winston in the top of the third.

Virginia State then took a 2-1 lead in the fourth when Lipford ripped a triple and scored. But Chowan later tied things up in the fifth when the nation's top run-producer Tricia Gorman smacked a single to left field.

Kolezynski, Munro, Hipple, Sill and Allen each had a pair of hits to pace Chowan, which banged out 12 hits as a team.

Virginia State was held to five hits. Mattia struck out five and gave up three runs – two earned.

Christie Wright scattered five hits and gave up two runs – one earned – while fanning six.