No tiebreaker games were necessary to decide which two teams would square off against each other for the 2015 Cowles Cup best-of-three Championship Series.

The regular season No. 1 USSSA Pride and No. 2 Chicago Bandits both swept the Dallas Charge and Akron Racers, respectively, to stamp their tickets to the finals.

In the first game of the afternoon, the Bandits rallied from down by two to eliminate the Racers by a score of 5-2. The Racers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the third, but those two runs are all the Racers would manage in the contest.

Down 1-2 in the bottom of the fifth, the Bandits exploded for four runs, finishing the inning with what would be the final score of the game. After a bases loaded walk tied the game at two apiece, the 2015 NPF Offensive Player of the Year Brittany Cervantes drove in RBIs to put the Bandits ahead 5-2, on what would be the deciding hit of the game.

Michelle Gascoigne went six innings in the circle for the Bandits until Monica Abbott came on in relief to clinch the victory.

The USSSA Pride and Dallas Charge game proved much closer than the Pride’s 8-1 victory Friday evening.

The Pride wasted no time continuing their offensive onslaught. A two-run triple by the 2015 NPF Rookie of the Year Shelby Pendley and an RBI line drive by Madison Shipman off Charge pitcher Jolene Henderson’s head put the Pride up 3-0 in the bottom of the first.

On an encouraging note, Henderson was able to walk off on her own strength and was replaced by Morgan Melloh.

With the score 4-0 in the top of the fourth, Dallas got its first RBIs off a two-run home run by outfielder Brianna Cherry. A solo home run in the top of the fifth by Renada Davis pulled the Charge within a run until the Pride exploded for four runs in the bottom half of the frame, two coming from a 2-run homerun from Pendley.

Down 8-3, the Charge were not finished just yet. They tacked on two runs in the top of the sixth and were able to pull within one run again, this time off a two-run home run by NPF rookie Taylor Thom. The Charge’s comeback would end there, however, as the Pride managed to hold off the rally and win 8-7.

The Bandits and Pride will start the best-of-three Championship Series Sunday, August 16th at 2:00 PM CT. Expect a pitcher’s duel in the series between the Bandit’s Monica Abbott and the Pride’s Cat Osterman. Abbott leads the league in ERA at .31 while Osterman’s 15 wins and 164 strikeouts top the leaderboard.

In the team’s 12 meetings during the regular season, the Pride hold the slight advantage at seven wins and five losses. The Pride also edged out the Bandits by three games to win the regular season title.

Promoting their #WillThereBe3 hashtag on Twitter, the Pride will look to be the first team ever to three-peat as Cowles Cup Champions, while the Bandits look to upset the reigning champions and take home their third franchise Cowles Cup.