MARION — The Marion Wildcats’ perfect softball season added some hardware Friday, or it will eventually.

Karris Rhine homered and drove in four runs, and freshman Kaitlyn Reuss tossed a three-hit shutout, striking out 12 leading Marion past Carbondale 7-0 for a 3A softball regional championship. The win was the 200th for head coach Joy Neal.

Due to the change in postseason format with higher seeded teams hosting each round, the Wildcats will have to wait for the IHSA to send them their regional plaque. The players didn’t seem to mind, as they made their own regional champion posters to go with the milestone balloons for the traditional team picture in a non-traditional season.

Marion’s high powered offense needed a while to get going, as Carbondale starting pitcher Kaitlyn Anders kept them without a hit until the third.

The Wildcats wound up scoring three runs in the third, thanks to two-out, run scoring hits from Amelia Browning, Rhine and Tori Evans.

Browning added an RBI single in the sixth ahead of Rhine’s three-run blast to shut the door.

Marion improves to 20-0 and will host Highland Tuesday at 4:30 in the sectional. Carbondale finishes the shortened season 9-8, with three of those losses.