GRASS LAKE – Unity Nelson pitched more than 230 official pitches Saturday during the Division 3 regional tournament, but it was the couple that didn’t count that may have been the biggest.

The three-time Whiteford All-State pitcher uncharacteristically walked four straight Clinton batters in the first inning and threw 73 pitches to retire the Redwolves over the first three innings. Instead of sitting in the dugout in-between innings, Nelson grabbed her catcher and went behind the Whiteford dug out for a little fine-tuning.

“I sometimes do that when I feel like a pitch is off or not working the way I want it to,” Nelson said. “I really wanted to make sure everything was tighter and to see it.”

Nelson bounced back nicely from that first inning in the regional semifinal and finished the day with 28 strikeouts as Whiteford beat Clinton 8-2 and Leslie 8-0 to win the Division 3 regional championship. It’s the fourth straight regional title for the Bobcats, who will take a 28-5-1 record into Tuesday’s quarterfinal in Detroit.

“We haven’t seen that before,” Whiteford coach Matt VanBrandt said of Nelson’s first inning walks. “We got two outs right away then had four walks in a row. There were a lot of close pitches. The umpire’s strike zone is what the umpire’s strike zone is. Pitchers and teams eams have to adapt to it. We didn’t complain about it, we just dealt with it the best we could.”

With Nelson settling in pitching, Bobcats hitters like Karlei Conard, Shay Alexander and Jillian Webb did the rest, driving in runs and collecting hits.

Koralynn Billau got Whiteford on the board in the second inning when she stole second base with two outs and came around to score on two Clinton errors. The big blast of the day for the Bobcats came in the third. Ava Wood singled, Nelson walked and Conard blasted a two-out triple to deep right field to make it 3-1. She scored on a Brooklyn Mills hit to make it 5-1.

In the sixth, Alexander singled in two more runs, then got caught in a rundown between first and second, just long enough to allow a third run to score and an insurmountable 8-1 Bobcat lead.

“She’s a very instinctual base runner,” VanBrandt said. “She knows what to do and when to do it because she’s played so much softball.”

In the final, Nelson struck out 13 and worked out of a couple jams but mainly cruised to the win.

The Bobcats scored one in the first, two in the second, two in the fourth and three in the top of the seventh inning to pull away from the Blackhawks. Conard had three hits, Alexander doubled, Nelson and Mills each had two hits and Webb had a two-run double.

“Proud of the girls,” VanBrandt said. “It’s never easy. Clinton was good, we split with them this season, so we knew that. Leslie was someone we hadn’t faced all year. We are excited to keep the season going and continue to compete.”

Whiteford will face the winner of Algonac-Grosse Point Woods University Liggett at 4 p.m. Tuesday.