SALEM, Va. - - Saturday night's match up between regular season champion West Virginia Wesleyan and second seeded UVa-Wise lived up to its billing with a 12-inning, two hour 57 minute marathon in the winner's bracket final at the MEC Softball Tournament.  Following 11 innings of scoreless action and few threats to dent the scoreboard, UVa-Wise plated five runs with two outs in the top of the 12th to advance to Sunday's championship game.

UVa-Wise (36-14) starter Taylor Brandts and West Virginia Wesleyan (40-11) starter Jacqui Omichinski locked up in an epic pitching battle that saw no hitter record an extra-base hit in the 12-inning affair.   

Neither side was able to advance a runner to third base in the first two innings as Brandts allowed just one base runner in the first two frames and Omichinski fanned three while allowing two base runners.  In the top of the third, the Cavaliers posed one of the game's most serious scoring threats as Alexa Hernandez reached with a one out single before being retired on a fielder's choice that allowed Sarah Wiltshire to reach first.  Christina Ziemba would then deliver a two-out single to move Wiltshire up to second, both runners would move up a bag during Mindy Comb's at bat on a wild pitch but, Omichinski would strike out Combs to retire the side.

The Combs strike out would be the first of seven consecutive hitters to be retired by Omichinski.   Brandts was equally as impressive as she retired of 11 of 12 hitters before the Bobcats posed a threat with back-to-back singles by Jessica Griffin and Jessica Rodriguez in the fourth inning.  The MEC Pitcher of the Year would quiet the two-out rally when she got Rebekah Honce to ground out to shortstop to end the inning.

Neither school would put more than one base runner on base again until the eighth inning when Hernandez walked to lead off the inning for the Cavaliers.  Wiltshire moved her up to second with a sacrifice bunt before Ziemba would fly out to left field for the second out of the inning.  Combs would then hit a grounder to second that was bobbled allowing her to reach base and put the go-ahead run on third.  Omichinski was again up to the task as she retired Kristina Romualdo on a ground ball to shortstop.

Following a one-two-three bottom of the eighth by Brandts, UVa-Wise would strand Charity Lawson at first in the ninth after she walked with one out. 

In the Bobcat ninth, Honce reached base via an error with two outs in the inning and moved to second on a base hit by Carleigh Hall.  With the winning run at second, Brandts wiggled out of the jam with a pop up to Romualdo at first base to continue the game.

Omichinski would turn in a one-two-three inning, including two strikeouts to give her club another shot at walking off victorious. 

Following back-to-back outs, Omichinski tried to start a two-out rally with a base hit up the middle but Megan Malenstyn was retired on a fly ball to centerfield for the final out of the 11th frame.

UVa-Wise continued the trend of stranding a base runner as a one-out single by Romualdo would go for naught.

Another one-two-three frame by Brandts would send the game to a 12th inning that would see the UVa-Wise bats wake from their sleep.

Fischer led off the inning with a base hit and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt.  Hernandez would walk to put two runners on but Wiltshire would ground to third, retiring Fischer and leaving runners on first and second with two outs.  This time Omichinski would not get out of the jam as the next five Cavaliers would reach base. Ziemba singled in Hernandez with the games' first run and Wiltshire scored a second run on a Wesleyan error to give UVa-Wise a 2-0 lead.

Karen Bitter's squad was not done as a second Bobcats error allowed Ziemba to score before Megan Dillion and Lawson added RBI hits in the five-run frame.

Brandts completed her masterpiece by retiring Wesleyan in order to record her 21st win of the year in the circle.

Brandts struck out eight and did not allow a walk as she scattered nine hits in the 12-inning complete game shutout.  In the loss, Wesleyan failed to have runner reach third base as the freshman right-hander has now allowed just two runs in 19 innings of work in the tournament.

Romualdo and Dillion were the only Cavs to record more than one hit while Alex Furr had a 2-5 game for the Bobcats

UVa-Wise will await the winner of the loser's bracket final tomorrow at noon and will have to be defeated twice in order to lose the tournament title.  A win would give UVa-Wise its eighth conference title and its first since 2009.  The Cavaliers have won five regular season titles and one tournament title since 2002.