SALT LAKE CITY - Tuiuli Felise scored on a wild pitch with two outs in the eighth inning as the No. 4 seed Southern Nevada Coyotes defeated fifth-seeded North Idaho College 8-7 in eight innings in the opening round of the Region 18 softball tournament Thursday at Bruin Field on the campus of Salt Lake Community College.

NIC (23-36) will face Snow (33-17) in a loser-out game today at 11 a.m. PDT. The winner will face the Western Nevada/Southern Nevada winner at 4 p.m.

NIC and Snow split doubleheaders in Moses Lake Feb. 17-18 before Snow won all four games in Ephraim, Utah, April 6-7.

NIC battled back from a 4-0 deficit vs. Southern Nevada to take a 5-4 lead in the seventh inning on an RBI groundout by Amber Meyers. Southern Nevada tied it on a solo home run by Desiree Laswell.

Kasara Wise hit a two-run double to give NIC the lead in the eighth, but the Coyotes tied it again at 7 on a single by Lianna Bajarin.

Wise had three RBIs and Ashley Moon two RBIs for NIC.

North Idaho 000 301 12 - 7 10 1

S. Nevada 013 000 13 - 8 11 2

Two out when winning run scored.

Emily Perlich, Jenifer Rosie (3) and Shelby Carter; D. Laswell and H. Curtis. W - Laswell (13-15). L - Rosie (7-10).

HITS: NIC - H. Bishop 2, Wise 3, Carter, Moon 2, B. Bishop 2. CSN - Godfrey, Fukuda, Firelin 2, Felise, Bajarin 3, Laswell, Wells. 2B - Wise, B. Bishop, Firelin, Curtis. HR - Wise (10), Moon (9), Laswell (12).

REGION 18 SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT

At Salt Lake Community College

Thursday

Southern Nevada 8, North Idaho 7, 8 innings

Snow 15, Western Nevada 4

Salt Lake 3, Southern Nevada 1

Southern Idaho 5, Snow 1

Game 5 - Western Nevada (21-39) vs. Southern Nevada (27-35), 8:30 a.m.

Game 6 - North Idaho (23-36) vs. Snow (33-17), 11

Game 7 - Salt Lake (53-7) vs. Southern Idaho (44-16), 1:30 p.m.

Game 8 - Winner Game 6 vs. Winner Game 5, 4

Saturday

Game 9 - Loser Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 10 a.m.

Game 10 - Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 9, 1:30 p.m. (championship game)

Game 11 - Winner Game 10 vs. Loser Game 9, 3 (if-necessary game)