HURLEY -- Hurley advanced to the WIAA Division 3 regional final with a 12-2 win over Cameron in a semifinal in six innings Tuesday at the Hurley K-12 School.
The Midgettes play Park Falls on Thursday in Hurley. The Cardinals defeated Chetek 3-1 in the other semi.
Hurley beat Park Falls 8-2 on May 8.
"Park Falls will be ready for us this time," Hurley coach Jim Kivisto said. "We will have to play good, solid softball in order for us to win."
Hurley scored seven runs in the fourth inning to break the game open.
Czerneski started the inning with a four-pitch walk. Freshmen Caitlin Maki and Bry Stengard each followed with singles. Czerneski and Maki both scored on a single by Jesse Mackey.
Senior Hailey Manzanares did damage with a two-run triple to take a 6-0 lead. Kayla Windt followed up with an inside-the-park home run to extend the lead to 8-0.
Nevala belted a triple and scored on a Czerneski sacrifice fly.
Judy Nevala started things for Hurley in the first inning. With two outs, Nevala struck out, but she reached on a dropped strike three.
Nevala came around to score on a deep triple by Amanda Brown. Senior Brittany Czerneski reached on an error in center field, allowing Brown to score.
Neither team scored in the second or third innings.
"We played great," Kivisto said. "We got that nice 2-0 lead early. I told the girls that we would get it going and in the fourth we hit the ball hard. Cameron had some nice defensive plays, so they had nothing to be ashamed of."
The Comets scored in the top of the fifth inning. Katelyn Voght reached on a walk and scored on a fielder's choice by Taye Bowen.
Hurley answered with another run in the bottom of the fifth. Maki hit a single. She advanced to third on two straight past-balls and scored on a Stengard sac-fly.
Cameron added one-more run in the top of the sixth, but trailed 10-2.
The Midgettes completed the victory with two more runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Windt reached on a walk, followed by Jeanna Aijala with a single. Nevala reached on an error in left field, scoring both Windt and Aijala to end the game.
Junior Brooke Vaara earned the win for Hurley. She pitched five hitless innings, striking out three, walking one. She also allowed one unearned run. Manzanares pitched one inning of relief for the Midgettes. She struck out one, walked one and allowed two hits.
"Brooke did a great job," Kivisto said. "The only reason we put Hailey in there was because she hasn't pitched in five days either. We wanted her to shake the rust off. They both did a great job."
Emily Krueger took the loss for Cameron. She pitched five innings, walking two and allowing 11 hits.
Windt led the Midgettes at the plate. She went 1-for-3 with a home run, walk, two runs scored and two RBIs. Mackey went 2-for-3 with a run scored, a stolen base and two RBI. Brown and Manzanares both went 1-for-3 with a triple, one run scored and two RBI.
