MONMOUTH – They’ve been a work in progress all season.

Monmouth has spent most of the softball season putting the pieces together on what was assumed to be a tournament contender in the preseason. Injuries and inexperience hampered that journey, but the Mustangs arrived right on schedule Monday.

Jenn Lola’s two-out double in the bottom of the eighth produced a 1-0 win over Telstar in a crucial MVC showdown.

“We’re sitting on top of the world right now,” said Lola, the MVC Player of the Year for the second year in a row. “We have so much confidence in what this team can do.”

A spot in the MVC title game was on the line as well as the No. 2 seed in Western Class C.

“They needed to know up front what they needed to play for,” said Monmouth coach Rachel Bernier. “I asked them to be focused, and they came to play and executed when they had to.”

Monmouth (12-2) plays unbeaten Georges Valley at Thomas College on Tuesday, June 10, at 4:30 p.m. for the conference championship.

The loss leaves Telstar, the defending MVC champs, out of the conference title game and could cost them home field in the Western C semifinals.

“We’re out of the MVC game, and we’ll probably be in third place,” said Telstar coach Jim Lunney. “They deserved to win. They hung tough, got an opportunity to score, and they scored.”

The battle between the second- and third-ranked teams featured two outstanding pitching performances. Brittany Hilton gave up three hits and struck out six. Telstar’s Candace Hall allowed three hits and fanned seven. Jill Armstrong had two of Monmouth’s hits.

“She kept the ball out of the dirt and had control of her location,” Bernier said of Hilton, who missed a month to a back injury.

The Mustangs also had superb defense. Lola made a diving stop on a ball hit by T.J. Cowin. Bethany Neal made a nice grab of a pop up at the plate, and Kelsie Hilton also hustled for a foul pop. Neal also threw out a baserunner.

“It took everybody,” said Bernier. “It’s good to get the pieces in place, and the execution part was there.”

Monmouth took advantage of a Telstar error in the eighth. Katie Woodman’s bunt was misplayed. Woodman then stole second, and followed Brittany Hilton with a bunt. Telstar nearly had Woodman at third, but she escaped the rundown and raced back to second. After a force out left runners at first and second, Lola drove the ball into the gap in right to plate courtesy-runner Katy Weiderhorn.

“The first three times I got out, they were jamming me inside,” said Lola. “They knew that my weakness is inside. I knew they were going to come inside. So I’d take a step back and try to hit it on the first pitch. She usually throws a strike on the first pitch. This one was on the outside, and I just went for it.”

Hannah Morin made a gallant backhanded effort in right but couldn’t make the catch.

“We had two bunts, and we misplayed two of them,” said Lunney. “We really could have gotten out of that inning.”

Telstar (12-2) stranded four runners. Kayla Merrill had a leadoff triple in the second, but couldn’t score. Julia Stambolis singled and Abby Hutchins reached on an error in the fourth,. Merrill singled in the seventh, but defensive plays by Neal and Lola nixed that chance.

“We had chances,” said Lunney. “There were two big plays where we didn’t get bunts down, and it killed us. First and second and nobody out, we got a good hitter up and a good bunter up. We popped up two bunts that would have gotten them in scoring position. We simply didn’t do it. We had all kind of opportunities.”