Woodstock North’s softball team lost a game last week, to their District 200 rival no less. The Thunder never lost confidence, however.

“It was just a rough game,” pitcher Kylee Nicholson said of North’s upset defeat to host Woodstock. “Everyone was ‘off.’ We needed a rough game going into regionals. ... We were on a high, and we got put down.”

North is on a new high.

After winning their last two regular-season games, the Thunder opened the postseason Tuesday by beating, yep, Woodstock 5-1 in a semifinal of the Class 3A Crystal Lake Central Regional in Crystal Lake.

Nicholson pitched 5⅓ innings of no-hit ball, striking out 13 in a complete-game effort, as second-seeded North (20-5) earned a berth in Saturday’s 10 a.m. regional final against the winner of Wednesday’s game between No. 3 Crystal Lake Central (8-20) and No. 6 Crystal Lake South (6-16).

The Thunder’s win avenged their 13-1 loss in five innings on May 12. It was North’s only loss in Kishwaukee River Conference action.

“I was definitely excited [to play Woodstock again],” Nicholson said after throwing a one-hitter with two walks. “We’re very competitive with Woodstock, but I wasn’t worried. I knew we were going to win.”

North coach Gwen Malecke had a message for her players before they faced the Blue Streaks for the third time this season.

“I told them, ‘You’re conference champs for a reason,’ ” said Malecke, whose team won the KRC championship for the first time in program history and beat Woodstock 10-0 in the teams’ first meeting. “They earned it. They put the work in all year.”

No. 7 Woodstock (4-18) didn’t lack confidence coming in after sophomore ace Megan Kuiper struck out 12 Thunder batters in five innings in the two teams’ previous game. Kuiper had missed more than a month because of an arm injury.

“We always have a lot of confidence in her,” Streaks coach Alyssa Cook said.

North’s Maddie Nordahl singled off Kuiper leading off the bottom of the first, after Nicholson set down the Streaks in order in the top of the inning. Nordahl, who finished 3 for 3, stole second base and later scored on a wild pitch.

“We all thought they were going to be pretty angry, but I still felt we would have a chance,” Woodstock shortstop/leadoff hitter Mackenzie Bowles said of the Thunder.

“We knew that it was going to be a ballgame today, and it was,” Cook said.

The one run was all Nicholson needed, as she retired the first nine batters she faced before walking Bowles leading off the fourth. Bowles stole second base but was stranded at third when Thunder second baseman Aly Jordan alertly fielded a ball off the bat of freshman Katie Nixon that glanced off Nicholson and threw to first for the third out.

North added four runs in the fifth (only one earned) off Kuiper. Allyson Schaid got an RBI on a groundout, and Makayla Nordahl singled home another run.

Bowles broke up Nicholson’s no-hitter with an opposite-field triple down the right-field line with one out in the sixth. The ball landed just short of the 205-foot sign.

“I thought it was gone,” said Bowles, who later scored after an errant throw.

Nicholson said she was aware that she was throwing a no-hitter.

“It’s OK,” she said. “A one-hitter is still pretty good.”

Bowles’ hit was the Thunder’s first off Nicholson in 7⅔ innings dating back to the teams’ previous game, when the 5-foot-5 junior lefty threw 2⅓ innings of shutout ball in relief of Makayla Nordahl. The run Nicholson allowed Tuesday was unearned.

“I have full confidence in both of my pitchers,” Malecke said. “We beat ourselves a bit in that [last game against Woodstock]. What could have gone wrong did. We weren’t playing our best ‘D,’ and we were struggling to hit off a really good pitcher [Kuiper]. Today I told the girls, ‘Just attack the ball, make good contact and good things will happen,’ and I think they did that. We stuck to the game plan.”