SALISBURY - Down to their last three outs, the Vienna Lady Eagles needed one run to keep their season going.
They didn't get one. They got two.
Marsie Messersmith led off the top of the seventh inning with a solo home run, then Gabby Wilkinson followed two batters later with a go-ahead solo blast. Those two led Vienna to a 5-4 win Wednesday afternoon against the Salisbury Lady Panthers in the Class 1 semifinals at Potts Park.
Vienna (21-4) will make its first state championship game appearance since 1984. The Lady Eagles will face Platte Valley (22-3) at 11 a.m. Saturday at Killian Softball Complex in Springfield.
Platte Valley, a co-op of Jefferson: Conception Junction and South Nodaway, won Wednesday's other semifinal game 18-0 in three innings against La Plata.
Salisbury, the defending Class 1 state champion, struck first with three runs in the bottom of the second inning against Vienna. Addi Wales scored on a passed ball and Anna White and Khloe Wyatt each had RBI singles for the Lady Panthers.
Vienna responded with its first of three homers in the game, as Kadence George began the top of the third with a solo homer to center. Messersmith singled and later scored on an error to make it a 3-2 game.
In the next inning, George added another RBI hit, this time a two-out single to score Molly Otto, to tie the score at 3.
Messersmith worked around a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fifth, but Salisbury opened the sixth with a solo home run to right field by Brooke Bartholomew. That gave the Lady Panthers a 4-3 lead and put them three outs from reaching the state title game for a third consecutive season.
Bartholomew stepped to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the seventh with a chance to win the game for Salisbury, but Messersmith struck her out to end the game.
In seven innings, Messersmith allowed four runs on six hits with three walks and seven strikeouts. She also collected two of Vienna's seven hits.
George was 2-for-3, while Karissa Feeler had a double and Otto had a single for the Lady Eagles.
Jaden Howard took the loss for Salisbury (21-7), striking out 12 and walking five in seven innings.
Bartholomew went 3-for-4 to lead the Lady Panthers' hitting attack.
Vienna, which played Wednesday in its first state semifinal game since 1998, will be making its fourth state championship game appearance in program history.
The Lady Eagles finished runner-up in 1978 - when all teams were in one class and the championship game was at Vivion Field - and won back-to-back Class 1A-2A titles in 1983 and '84.