Soo Bin Joo takes a four-stroke lead into the final round of the ShopRite LPGA after another strong showing Saturday in Galloway, N.J.

Joo, who was three strokes back after Friday’s opening round, maintained her momentum on a day where the scores were much higher, shooting a 3-under-par 68 to surge out to 8 under for the tournament.

After an opening round where the best round was 8 under and five players shot 6 under or better, the Bay Course at Seaview Hotel & Golf Club showed its teeth on Saturday with an assist from some heavy wind. The best score of the second round was 3 under and only 20 of the 139 competitors in action shot under par.

Joo didn’t get off to a great start with a bogey on the first hole of the day. But that proved to be her only mishap as she was blemish-free the rest of the way, posting four birdies, including on each of the final two holes.

The 22-year-old South Korean is seeking her first career LPGA victory.

“Winning (a) LPGA tournament (would be) a dream come true,” Joo said after her round. “I started playing golf because I want to win a tournament on LPGA, so it will be super fun, very exciting.”

Joo is twice as far below par as anyone else in the field. Four strokes behind her is a logjam of five players tied at 4 under. That includes twin Japanese sisters Chizzy and Aki Iwai — who both shot 3 under Saturday — South Korea’s Somi Lee (69), France’s Celine Boutier (72) and Israel’s Laetitia Beck (75).

Chizzy Iwai appeared destined for a disappointing finish when she spoiled a 3-under score with consecutive bogeys at the par-3 seventh and par-4 eighth. However, she redeemed that with an eagle at the par-5 ninth, finishing with the fewest putts of anyone on the day, 24.

“It was so lucky,” Iwai said of her round-closing eagle. “At the second shot when I hit the moment, I felt so good. And then, yeah, chipping, it’s a little bit lucky because a little bit too strong (of a) shot. But, yeah I believe it was (a) good shot.”

Beck, who shot a bogey-free 8-under 63 on Friday, fell back to the pack by shooting 4 over in the second round. Starting on the back nine, she had identical results on each half of the course, pairing three bogeys with a birdie on both the front and back.

She hit 11 of 14 fairways, but managed to hit just 8 of 18 greens in regulation and needed 30 putts to complete her round.

“Today was extremely windy, so (it) definitely was much harder to judge club selections, and putts were also much harder,” Beck said. “That’s where I pretty much struggled today. I didn’t make putts, but I think I misjudged a little bit a few times with the wind being so long leaving it short, and then the chip was pretty tough. Yeah, so I learned a lot from those mistakes.”

Beck wasn’t alone in struggling to build off momentum of a strong opening round. Each of the six players who shot 6 under or better in the opening round shot 3 over or worse in the second.

Defending champion Jennifer Kupcho followed a disappointing first round with an even worse second round (77) to fall to 9 over and miss the cut at 3-over 145.

–Field Level Media

Marlie Giles set the tone with a three-run homer to lift Alabama into the Women’s College World Series semifinals with a 5-1 defeat of Nebraska Saturday night in Oklahoma City.

That alone proved to be enough for Alabama pitcher Jocelyn Briski, who threw a complete-game one-hitter to move the Crimson Tide (56-7) one win away from the WCWS Championship Series.

Giles added a run on a sacrifice fly, finishing with four RBIs. Leadoff hitter Jena Young was 2-for-2 with an RBI single.

Lauren Camenzind provided the only hit for Nebraska (52-8), a fourth-inning solo homer. Jordy Frahm allowed three runs over two innings in her start. She was replaced by Alexis Jensen, who struck out six over four innings but allowed two unearned runs on two hits.

Despite putting the first two batters of the home first inning on base, the Crimson Tide seemed destined to come up empty after consecutive strikeouts. Giles made sure that wasn’t the case, smashing a first-pitch homer over the wall in center to open a 3-0 lead.

Briski retired the first 11 batters of the game before allowing her lone hit and run on Camenzind’s homer. She followed by retiring 10 of the final 12 batters she faced, with the only two baserunners reaching on errors. Briski struck out six and gave up no free passes to improve to 25-3.

Nebraska, which had a 27-game win streak snapped, faces Texas Sunday in an elimination game for the right to face Tennessee in the semifinals. Alabama awaits the winner of Sunday’s other elimination game between Texas Tech and UCLA for a Monday semifinal.

–Field Level Media

Ronald Acuna Jr. launched a pair of home runs on Saturday night to help the visiting Atlanta Braves post a 5-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

Acuna tallied his first multi-homer game of the year, hitting his third and fourth home runs in the last three games after he had just two in his first 42 games. Jorge Mateo and Matt Olson each added a solo homer for the Braves, who won their fourth game in five tries and became the first team in the majors to reach 40 wins.

Martin Perez (3-3) allowed two runs on four hits over five innings, striking out a pair and walking three.

Raisel Iglesias completed his 10th save in as many tries with a perfect ninth inning. The Braves improved to 33-0 this season when leading after eight innings.

Brady Singer (2-5) yielded three runs on four hits in five innings, walking four and striking out two. JJ Bleday hit a two-run homer for the Reds, who dropped their third straight and fell to 9-17 in the month of May.

Ozzie Albies began the second inning with a double and scored the game’s first run on Mike Yastrzemski’s RBI single.

The Reds took their first lead of the series in the bottom of the second, as Spencer Steer’s walk was followed by Bleday’s ninth homer of the season to give Cincinnati a 2-1 edge.

Acuna knotted the score in the third with his first homer of the day.

Mateo launched his third homer of the year in the top of the fifth, restoring Atlanta’s lead.

Singer then walked Acuna, Michael Harris II and Olson to load the bases with two outs. Albies popped out to end the jam.

Tejay Antone threw a scoreless sixth in relief of Singer.

Tyler Kinley took over for Perez in the bottom of the sixth, throwing just six pitches in a perfect frame.

Olson doubled the Atlanta lead with a solo blast in the seventh off reliever Brock Burke before Acuna’s 405-foot homer in the ninth off Lyon Richardson pushed the margin to three.

–Field Level Media