MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — GPS is in position to win its third consecutive high school softball state championship.

The Bruisers defeated St. Benedict 7-2 at Starplex No. 3 in Thursday’s Division II-AA winners-bracket final, which puts them in today’s championship game at about 8 p.m. EDT. A second game, if necessary, would be played Saturday.

GPS coach Susan Crownover said she told assistant coach Kim Leffew at their hotel before the game that “I think somebody’s got to go big. Somebody usually goes big for us at the state tournament.”

When Leffew asked who she thought that might be, Crownover predicted Morgan Lane.

Lane ended up going 3-for-3 with a home run to center field in her first at-bat. She joined Jackie Baird and Payton Leech as Bruisers with RBI doubles in a four-run fifth inning.

“I’m going to go play the lottery later,” Crownover said. “She had an outstanding game.”

The Bruisers’ offense routinely gets its spark from the top of the batting order, and Tory Lewis and Whitney Hammond were pests to the opposition yet again. The left-handed slappers were a combined 5-for-6 with a walk and three runs scored.

“She lets us read the infielders by ourselves,” Hammond said of Crownover. “If what we’re doing is not working, then she steps in.”

One of Hammond’s three hits was a triple to the right-center-field fence in the third inning, and it was with Lewis’s bat.

“I don’t usually hit it that far,” Hammond said. “I used that bat the rest of the game.”

St. Benedict (30-14) got to starting pitcher Lea Capehart for four hits and the tying run in the top of the second before Crownover made a pitching change. Leech came in and staved off the rally with the first of her four strikeouts.

Crownover said if she feels one of her pitchers doesn’t have it, she’ll make a move early, and the two have picked each other up all season.

GPS (24-6) didn’t fare well defensively, although Megan Givens had two key catches in center field — one she turned into a double play. Having 13 hits made up for it.

“It was not the prettiest state-tournament game we’ve played, but we stayed after it offensively,” Crownover said. “I thought it was big that every time they did something, we responded.”

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