OKLAHOMA CITY | Senior Tiffanie Burns continued her hot day at the plate and junior ace Courtney Poole pitched a two-hit shutout as the sixth-ranked University of North Georgia Nighthawks took down Adelphi, 8-0, in five innings. UNG advances to 51-8 on the season and will face former NAIA-rival Shorter in the semifinals of the NCAA DII Softball Championship.
 
"I'm proud of our kids for battling today," UNG head coach Mike Davenport said. "Tiffanie (Burns) ran into a few and that really broke the ice for us offensively."
 
Just as in game one, it was Tiffanie Burns giving the Nighthawks the spark at the plate with a two-run blast over the center field wall to give UNG a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
 
UNG scored two more in the third inning as Taylor Anne Merritt earned a lead off walk and then Meagan May reached on a throwing error during her sacrifice bunt attempt. May stole second and then went to third on Kim McMillan's RBI ground out to second as Merritt came home to score. May crossed the plate on a beautiful squeeze play executed by Burns, taking advantage of the defense playing back after her two home runs earlier in the day. That gave the Hawks a 4-0 lead.
 
Meredith Heyer drove in another run in the fourth inning, ripping a double down the left field line to score Katie Block from second, putting UNG up 5-0.
 
The Nighthawks would get the three runs needed to complete the run-rule win in the bottom of the fifth. McMillan led off the inning with a single deep in the hole to short. Burns followed with a bunt single to the pitcher, putting runners on first and second with no one out. After a pop up to the pitcher, Jessica Finch launched a two-run double into the right center gap to make it a 7-0 UNG advantage.
 
Hannah McSwain entered to pinch run for Finch and Katie Block sent a one-out single up the middle to put runners on the corners with just one out. That's when Alexis Collis picked up a sacrifice fly RBI to right, bringing home Block to score the game clinching run.
 
Courtney Poole (44-4) earned the win in the circle for the Nighthawks tossing a two-hit shutout. Poole allowed only one addition base runner in the game with a hit by pitch in the first inning. The UNG ace struck out seven. With the win, Poole ties Sarah Phillips single-season record for wins.
 
North Georgia will square off with in-state foe and former NAIA-rival, Shorter in the semifinals of the 2015 NCAA Division II Championship. UNG must defeat Shorter twice to advance to the National Championship Game. First pitch for tomorrow's game is set for Noon CDT at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium and will be broadcast live on NCAA.com with Lincoln Rose and Leah Secondo on the call.