Senior pitcher Jaycee Craver pitched the University of Illinois Springfield softball team to the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional Tournament finals on Friday afternoon in St. Louis, Mo. The Prairie Stars advanced with a 3-1 win over Indianapolis, the No. 13 team in NCAA Division II.
 
Craver, who threw a shutout in the first round of the tournament on Thursday, gave up just the single run in her complete game victory. She allowed six hits and two walks, and struck out two. She now has a 0.85 ERA in the postseason this year, and she is holding opponents to a .223 batting average in those four starts.
 
Indianapolis threatened early in the game with runners on second and third with one out in the second inning. Craver fielded a ground out in which the runners couldn't advance for the second out, and then got a strikeout to get out of the jam. The Greyhounds also had two runners on in the fourth, and a runner in scoring position in the sixth, but couldn't score either time.
 
In the top of the seventh, with UIS up by a 3-0 score, two hits and a walk loaded the bases for Indianapolis with no one out. Craver forced a pop up in shallow outfield that second baseman Ali Bortmess made a nice catch on, but the runner on third scored on the play. Craver then got two more pop ups, one to catcher Grace Harris and one to shortstop Bree Derhake, to end the game.
 
UIS's offense on the day was provided by Derhake, who scored all three runs. In the second, she singled with one out, advanced to second on a single by Grace Harris, and then scored on a two-out hit by Kendra Peifer.
 
Derhake reached base in the fourth when she led off the inning with a walk. Harris sacrificed her to second, and Addison Bryant drove her in with a single to center. In the sixth, UIS used a similar formula for another insurance run. Derhake walked to open up the inning, Harris bunted her to second, and Peifer had another two-out RBI single.
 
UIS, which is now 29-24 on the season, moves on to tomorrow's championship game at noon in St. Louis. The Prairie Stars will have two chances in the double-elimination tournament to pick up one win and advance to the NCAA Super Regionals for the second straight year.