COLLEGE SOFTBALL: Lady Wranglers return to semifinals

OXFORD, ALA. The Odessa College Lady Wranglers are going back to the semifinals.

The No. 1-seeded team erased a three-run deficit in order to do it.

The Lady Wranglers defeated No. 5 Northwest Florida State, 6-4 in the third round of the NJCAA World Series, Thursday at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Ala.

With the victory, Odessa College (54-4) will play in the NJCAA Semifinals at noon Friday against No. 2-seeded Florida Southwestern State.

Florida Southwestern State defeated No. 6 seed Grayson College 5-0 Thursday.

Northwest Florida State got on the board first, taking a 1-0 lead after Layla Thompson singled to left field, scoring Sydney Stewart.

Things didn’t get easier for Odessa College as the Raiders added two more runs off Sophia jones’ single to shortstop.

The Lady Wranglers got on the board thanks to a sacrifice by Kawehi Ili, scoring Ariel Gomez in the bottom of the first inning.

Clarisa Zapata then hit a home run, scoring Ari Ybarra in the process, tying the game up at 3-3 in the bottom of the third inning.

A home run by Camryn Milley then gave Odessa College a lead in the bottom of the fourth.

The Lady Wranglers added two runs in the sixth to make it 6-4.

Odessa College finished with eight hits and one error while the Raiders had five hits and no errors.

Northwest Florida fell to 47-9.