Photo | Steven Browning

The Lady Cats’ Rachelle Toppings scores a run in last night’s win over Riverside.

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One more win and the Lady Cats are in.

In the Class AAA state tournament.

The Logan High School softball team breezed to a 9-1 win at home over Riverside on Thursday night in the regional semifinals. Logan, winners of seven out of its last nine games, improved to 25-6 on the season and will travel next Thursday to play at either Nicholas County or Greenbrier East in the Class AAA regional championship game for a berth in the state tourney at Vienna.

Logan’s Morgan Aguirre was simply brilliant again for the Lady Cats in last night’s win over Riverside as she fired a one-hitter within the circle and rapped out four hits to lead the Lady Cats to the mercy-rule win over the Warriors.

Aguirre has produced a 13-4 mark with a 1.53 ERA and 158 punchouts this season while hitting .449 with five home runs and 15 doubles.

The Lady Cats wasted no time against Riverside, which saw its season come to an end at 17-12.

Logan was the visitor on the scoreboard and plated two runs in the top of the first frame off Riverside starter Sara Winter. Rachelle Toppings singled and later scored on a wild pitch to give Logan a 1-0 lead. Lara Sedlock, hitting .495 with a team-high 41 RBI this season, then reached on an error and scored on an RBI single by Aguirre to make it a 2-0 ballgame.

Aguirre then got Riverside out in order in the first two innings of play.

Logan built its lead to 4-0 in the top half of the third frame.

Sedlock drew a one-out walk and Katie Chryssofos then singled to put runners on first and third. Aguirre then helped her own cause by ripping a two-run double, giving the Lady Cats a 4-0 lead. Chryssofos came into the game batting .376 with 10 homers and 38 RBI. In the last three seasons, Chryssofos has hit 32 round-trippers.

Aguirre then struck out the side in the bottom of the third inning.

Logan pushed its lead to 7-0 off Winter by scoring three runs in the top of the fourth inning.

Antonia Hill got it started with a one-out single and Toppings then followed with another single before Taylor Norman popped out for the second out. Sedlock then cleared the bases with a deep fly ball over the left fielder’s head, scoring both Hill and Toppings to make it a 6-0 ballgame. Aguirre followed by singling home Sedlock to make it 7-0.

The Lady Warriors got its only hit and run off the game in the bottom of the fifth on a leadoff double by Morgan Long. Long then stole third and scored on a Lady Cats’ error to make it 7-1.

Logan added two more runs in the top of the sixth inning off Winter to take a commanding 9-1 advantage. Norman had a sac fly RBI to make it 8-1 and Sedlock added an RBI single. Norman has also had a fine season for Logan with a .458 batting average and a 10-1 mark within the circle with a 1.28 ERA.

Aguirre then got Riverside out in order to preserve the win as Logan won 9-1 due to the mercy rule.

Logan had nine runs on 10 hits and committed one error, while Riverside had one run on one hit and and three errors.

Toppings went 3-for-4 at the plate while Hill finished with two hits.