While no win is ever easy, and this one certainly wasn't the New Lisbon Rockets girls softball team was able to win their third straight regional title on Thursday.

The Rockets 5-3 win over Wonewoc-Center gave them another trip to sectionals action. New Lisbon will face the Cochrane-Fountain City Pirates on June 4 in Independence at 2 p.m.

New Lisbon advanced to their third straight sectional tournament with a pair of wins of Scenic Bluffs Conference (SBC) opponents.

"When you play a team three times you start to know them really well," New Lisbon coach John Costello said following the Rockets regional final victory. "We played a couple close games during the year and knew this wouldn't be any easier."

The Rockets advanced to the regional finals on Thursday, when they were able to rally from an early 2-1 deficit against the Cashton Eagles Tuesday with a four-run third inning to win 6-2.

New Lisbon tied the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the first inning on a passed ball, but Cashton regained the lead in the top of the second with a run.

It was all New Lisbon after that. The Rockets scored four runs in the bottom of the third and another in the fifth, with three of the five runs coming on passed balls and shut down the Eagles' attack the rest of the way to win 6-2 and advance to the regional final.

Haley Woggon picked up the win for New Lisbon pitching five innings and striking out three, Kiley Costello also pitched two scoreless innings in relief for the Rockets. Woggon also led the Rockets' offense going 2 for 3 at the plate.

The regional final pitted the top two SBC teams as the Rockets faced the Wonewoc-Center Indians with a trip to sectionals at stake. New Lisbon was able to strike first, as Tanya Stickney was able to score in the bottom of the first inning to give the Rockets a 1-0 lead.

Both teams were scoreless in the second, before New Lisbon added to their lead as Stickney singled, followed by a Costello double and both scored as Karla McNeely cleared the bases with a triple to give New Lisbon a 3-0 lead after three.

A scoreless fourth was followed by the Indians taking advantage of some indecision by the Rockets' defense as a pair of runs scored to narrow the lead to 3-2.

New Lisbon was able to get the runs right back in the bottom of the fifth as Stickney picked up her third hit of the day to lead off the inning, Costello drove in Stickney and McNeely picked up her third RBI with a sacrifice fly to score Costello and put the Rockets up 5-2 heading into the sixth.

The Indians were able to threaten in the sixth, but couldn't get across home plate and trailed 5-2 heading into the seventh.

Katie Bell gave the Indians' new life with a double to start the seventh for W-C. A hit by Kristin Field gave the Indians a pair of runners in scoring position with no outs. Bell scored on a long fly ball by Jenny Hagemann but the Indians couldn't complete the rally and fell 5-3.

"I am very proud of the girls," Costello said. "This is our third straight regional title and they are never easy. They (W-C) hit well today and our girls made some big plays and did a good job executing."

Woggon picked up another win for New Lisbon with five innings of work, Costello once again pitched two innings in relief for New Lisbon. McNeely led the Rocket offense with three RBI's, Stickney finished 3 for 4, and Costello added a 2 for 3 day at the plate for the Rockets.

W-C was led by Stephanie Kopenhafer and Katie Bell who both doubled for the Indians.

"I would have liked to see us not make some of the errors we had today, they were errors we usually don't make," Wonewoc-Center coach Dawn Ertel said as, despite the early deficit the Indians kept coming at the Rockets. Ertel added, "All year the girls didn't stop and I am very proud of them for continuing to come back. We lose four tough seniors, but this season was a good step for our program."

The Indians advanced to the regional final with a 6-4 win over Weston on Tuesday.

If the Rockets top Cochrane-Fountain City in sectional semifinal action on Thursday, they will play the winner of the De Soto/Belmont matchup in the sectional final looking to advance to the state tournament.