It was anybody's game heading into the bottom of the sixth, but the Notre Dame Fighting Irish scored two insurance runs in that frame and went on to a 3-0 decision over Wright State in the loser's bracket of the NCAA Softball Regionals in Evanston, Illinois, Saturday afternoon.

The Raiders posed a major two-out threat in the third as they loaded the bases on a Briauna Birl walk and infield hits from Michelle Logan and Kristen Bradshaw. Notre Dame starter Brittney Bargar (23-14), however, maintained the shutout by getting Jherica Williams to ground out to first.

The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the fourth when the Irish pushed across a run as Katie Laing singled, went to third on a sacrifice and an illegal pitch call against Allison Cox (15-15) and scored on an error.

It stayed that way until Notre Dame (32-23) added two insurance runs in the sixth against Raider reliever Jamie Perkins on a two-run hit to center off the bat of Linda Kohan, who drove in all three Irish runs for the game.

After loading the bases in the third, Wright State (25-35) managed just one baserunner over the next three innings against Bargar, an infield hit by Logan in the sixth, as she finished with nine strikeouts for the game.

WSU then had another runner in the seventh as Erica Schroeder reached on an error, but reliever Kenya Fuemmeler picked up her third save of the year as she struck out the side.