The Whitewater Lady Wildcats now have a region championship to go along with their top ranking in the state.

Whitewater relied on clutch hitting, scoring all its runs with two outs, and the right arm of Whitney Toler, who pitched a three-hitter, to defeat the Sandy Creek Lady Patriots 4-1 in the Region 5-AAAA championship game Friday at Starr’s Mill High School in Fayetteville.

It was the first softball region championship in school history for the Lady Wildcats, who went 4-0 in the tournament, including two victories over Creek. They beat Creek 4-2 Thursday to advance to the championship game.

Whitewater couldn’t have won the championship without timely hitting and Toler.

“Our hitting was a huge difference tonight,” Whitewater coach Stacey Smith said. “We hit well with two outs. Those clutch hits were huge. And Toler was studly again. I’m proud of her.”

Toler was the winning pitcher in three of the four Whitewater wins.

Through the first four innings against Creek, Toler was perfect, not allowing a single Creek batter to reach base.

Toler barely missed pitching a perfect game Tuesday, a 9-0 victory over Northgate in a quarterfinal game in which only a walk kept her from perfection.

Creek’s Kayla Folds ruined Toler’s bid for a perfect game with a fifth-inning double.

Trying to erase a four-run deficit, Creek rallied in the seventh against Toler, with Kayla Awbrey hitting a one-out double off the left-center field fence that scored Mackenzie Arlt, who had doubled in the previous at-bat.

Toler shook off the back-to-back doubles by getting Creek’s most powerful hitter, Hannah Braswell, to strike out swinging.

Toler avoided the mistake she made the previous night, when Braswell clobbered one of her pitches for a solo home run.

After walking Folds to put runners on first and second, Toler induced Mallory Muncher to hit a game-ending grounder to third.

Toler struck out eight, including at least one batter in each inning, and allowed three hits, one run and one walk.

Jamie Saunders handed Whitewater a 1-0 lead in the first with a two-out RBI double to left field.

Nikki Montesanti led off the fifth with a triple to deep right field. Two outs later, Whitewater again exhibited clutch hitting, with Ashley Schwab and Haley Richards hitting back-to-back, opposite-field RBI singles to make it 3-0.

Kaitlyn Johnson led off the sixth with a double to right field and scored on a fielding error to complete the scoring.

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