ALLIANCE, Ohio (WKBN) – Mount Union defeated Christopher Newport, 6-1, in the NCAA Softball Division III Regional Championship on Saturday.

The Purple Raiders beat CNU twice on Saturday to claim the first regional championship in program history during the team’s 11th tournament appearance.

Mount Union blew it open at the top of the 4th when a pair of Valley products smacked home runs during a 4-run inning. Kaitlyn Culver (Girard) drilled a solo home run before Sydney Mercer (West Branch) crushed a 3-run homer deep to left field to make it 5-1.

“I am just over the moon like I have the greatest, happiest emotions. I almost can’t even find the words, I’m still just so happy,” Mercer said. “Honestly, I blacked out, I feel like I don’t even remember what happened. I’m so happy and proud of the team.”

Mercer finished 2-for-3 with a HR, double and 3 runs batted in, while Culver went 1-for-2 with the solo HR.

“I’m so excited, oh, my God, we’ve been waiting for this for four years since our freshman year, we’ve always made it to the championship and then came up short,” Culver said. “But now we finally made it so I’m just so happy for this team.”

Senior Kendyll Cahill struck out 6 batters during a 7 inning complete game while allowing just a single run.

Mount Union started the day with a 9-1 victory over the Captains to force a winner-take-all game two.

During game one, Mercer and Allison Jones (Western Reserve) registered 2 hits and a run batted in each, while Culver notched 1 hit and 2 RBI.

In the circle, Cahill tossed 7 innings and struck out 6 batters while improving to 22-2 on the season after both wins.

Cahill was named Region Tournament Most Valuable Player while Jones and Mercer were named to the All-Region Tournament team.

Mount Union moves to 33-7 overall and will advance to the NCAA Super Regionals against the winner of UMass Dartmouth (33-11) and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (45-4) in a best-of-three series.

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