BRISTOL, Tenn. – The Union College softball pitching staff of Sherry DeVault and Sarah Driver combined for a 3-0 shutout against top-seeded Milligan (Tenn.) College in Thursday's winner bracket final of the Appalachian Athletic Conference Softball Tournament.

The win moved Union, the tournament's No. 3 seed, into the 2 p.m. AAC Championship game Friday at the Whitetop Creek Park softball complex in Bristol, Tenn. The Lady Bulldogs also improved to 22-25 and await the winner from the losers' bracket final which will be played at 12 p.m. Friday. Milligan fell to 33-17 and will be a part of the losers' bracket final against the winner between Tennessee Wesleyan College and Montreat (N.C.) College.

DeVault (Baltimore, Ohio) tossed the first five innings for her eighth win of the season while Driver (Hopkinsville, Ky.) closed the game out for her first save in 2008. Both pitchers allowed three hits while DeVault issued the only walk with seven strikeouts and Driver recorded a pair of strikeouts.

Union used RBI singles from Ashley Tatman (Lexington, Ky.) and Lee Davis (Lexington, Ky.) to take a 2-0 lead in the opening inning. Lyla Blauser (Hopkinsville, Ky.) scored on Tatman's hit while Davis drove in Tatman.

Another Tatman RBI single in fifth inning extended the lead to 3-0 and Union relied on pitching for the victory. Blauser scored the third and final run.

Tatman, Blauser, Davis and Suzannah Behnken (Tempe, Ariz.) had two hits a piece as the Lady Bulldogs collected 11 hits. Ashleigh Mensch (Elizabethtown, Ky.) added a double in a pinch-hit appearance.

Milligan's offense accounted for six hits, with two of them coming off Leah White's bat. Sidney Burns went all seven innings and suffered the loss. She mixed in nine strikeouts and did not issue a walk.

Lady Bulldog Notes

• This marks the first time in Union fast-pitch softball history that the program is in a conference championship game.
• The win was the first combined shutout by the Union pitching staff in 2008.
• Tatman's two-hit effort was the 18th multi-hit game of the season for the freshman.
• Blauser extended her hitting streak to a season-high nine games.