WARSAW – The Northridge softball team continued its stellar season Friday night with a sectional championship.

Ace Haley Nixon fired a six-hitter as the No. 2 Raiders blanked Concord 5-0 in the title tilt of the Class 4-A Warsaw Sectional.

The Raiders improved to 25-1 with their 23rd straight win in capturing a second straight sectional title. Northridge beat Northern Lakes Conference foe Concord for the third time this season. The Raiders topped the Minutemen 4-1 and 3-0 in a pair of regular-season contests.

Northridge will host either South Bend Riley (19-5) or South Bend Clay (15-11) in a one-game regional at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday in Middlebury. Riley plays Clay today (May 25) at 1 p.m. in the championship game of the South Bend Adams Sectional at the LaSalle Academy.

The Raiders, whose lone loss this season was to Class 1-A and defending state champion Lakewood Park Christian, beat Riley 6-2  in a regional game last year. Northridge then advanced to the semi state title game before losing 1-0 to Huntington North to cap a 30-2 season.

Nixon, a star junior, fanned six and walked none on Friday night to run her season mark to 24-1 in the circle. She allowed just one run in 21 innings of work versus Concord in the three Raider wins this season.

The Raiders took a 1-0 lead in the second and broke the game open with a four-run fifth frame. Brianne O’Dell had the big hit with a two-run single in the fifth.

Madison Schrock, one of two Northridge seniors and a Bowling Green recruit, led the winners by going 2-2 with a walk.

Leslie Crawford had two hits for a young Concord team, which finishes at 17-9 under first-year coach Dawn Austin.