BLOOMINGTON - Normal Community High School softball coach Bob Grimes gave slumping junior second baseman Katie Lutes a pep talk before Monday's Illinois Wesleyan Class AA Super-Sectional.

"She's been struggling as of late just missing the ball," Grimes said. "I told her, 'I feel good about you tonight, Katie. You've been hitting the ball well in practice.' "

Lutes made a prophet out of Grimes by slugging a tie-breaking solo home to highlight a 3-for-3 performance at the plate that powered NCHS to a 4-1 victory over underdog East Moline.

NCHS earned its first state tournament berth since 2004 while improving to 29-7. The Ironmen will face the winner of today's Illinois-Chicago Super-Sectional matchup between Chicago Resurrection and Chicago St. Ignatius at 5 p.m. Friday in the state quarterfinals at EastSide Centre in East Peoria.

"It's just real exciting because our whole goal was to go to state," Lutes said. "Our team is really pumped right now so we're just going with it."

NCHS and East Moline (16-22), which was the No. 7 seed in its sectional, were locked in a scoreless duel after five innings. Lutes struck quickly in the top of the sixth, sending the first pitch from Allison Devilder over the right field fence.

"I knew we needed to get some runs on the board so I was just going to go up there hacking," Lutes said. "I'm a first-pitch hitter, and if it's inside I just go for it."

The Ironmen added an unearned run later in the sixth before Lutes broke it open with a two-run single in the seventh. Senior right-hander Amber May escaped a minor jam in the seventh by striking out the side to complete the win.

May (14-2), pitching with a painful left knee injury that will require surgery after the season, fired a three-hitter with 13 strikeouts and no walks. May was working on only one day's rest following Saturday's sectional championship win over LaSalle-Peru.

"It was hurting, but I have four days (to rest) now and I know what to do," May said. "I told my coach no pain is going to stop me now."

Grimes briefly considered pulling May after the sixth inning until he talked to his ace.

"I think she was still pretty sore from Saturday, but she's a gamer," Grimes said. "She tweaked it a little bit in the sixth inning and we were kind of wondering what was going to happen. But she said there was no way she was going to come out."

NCHS collected six hits off Devilder (10-9) while playing error-free defense behind May for the third straight game.

"They've kept working hard in practice and we made some great plays tonight," Grimes said. "They're focused and they know they have a job to do. We hope we can represent the so-called downstate teams because it seems like so much of it is from the Chicago area, and they do have great ball up there. But we have good softball down here, too."

Devilder singled home Nicole Watson in the bottom of the seventh to break up the shutout. Devilder struck out four and walked three.

"I've seen (May) in the summer so I knew we were in for a tough day," said East Moline coach John Alonzo. "We did hang in there, but that one bomb (Lutes) hit took the wind out of our sails a little bit."