LAKEWOOD, NJ- After falling in Thursday's opening round game vs. Concordia College, the Georgian Court University softball squad reeled off a magical string of five straight victories. Unfortunately, the Lions' fairy tale run came to an abrupt end in the seventh inning in the final game of Saturday's Championship Round, as GCU fell to top-seed Dominican College, 7-6. The Lions now wait with fingers crossed for Sunday evening to see if the program will receive an invitation to the NCAA Division II Regional Tournament for the fourth straight season.

Georgian Court (38-17) started towards the difficult task of winning three games in one day with a Game One triumph over #2 Caldwell College, 7-6, sending the Cougars packing. The Lions then knocked off the Lady Chargers in a windy, wild 11-10 victory that set the table for the deciding contest.

The Lions scored all seven of their runs vs. Caldwell (42-14) in the first three innings. 2B Rachel Ruch blasted a two-run home run and DP Brooke Hull launched a solo shot in the top of the first inning. RF Jen Tartaglia  crunched a towering a home run in the second for a 4-0 lead. A pair of errors, a two-run double by Hull and an RBI single from C Donnie Brossoie in the third made it 7-0 Georgian Court. Caldwell began its comeback in the bottom of the third, when CACC Player of the Year, Kyrie Timbrook (Los Gatos, CA/Los Gatos), doubled home Dia Cascone (Staten Island, NY/Susan Wagner) and Kelly Ryan (Woonsocket, RI/Mt. St. Charles Acad.) to cut the deficit to 7-2.

The Cougars put runners on base in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings but did not score. Down to their final two outs in the seventh, Caldwell loaded the bases on two walks and a single. Brittni Frantellizzi (Binghamton, NY/Susquehanna Valley) followed with a single to score Marisa Tamez (Fountain Valley, CA/Fountain Valley). The next batter, pinch hitter Kelly Schymanski (Pottstown, PA/Owen Roberts), was hit by a pitch, plating Patti Garofolo (Collegeville, PA/Springford) and making the score 7-4. After a grounder by Ryan brought home Sierra Parker (Chino Hills, CA/Chino Hills), Cascone hit a two-out single that scored Katie Dellaratta (Deptford, NJ/Deptford) to pull the Cougars to within one, 7-6. With the tying run on second, Lions' pitcher Diana Sansevera, the winning hurler in all five of GCU's tournament victories, struck out the next batter to end the game.

Game one vs. Dominican saw GCU jump out to a 5-0 lead before the Lady Chargers got on the board with a run in the bottom of the third.

The Lions extended their lead to 8-1 in the fourth, but DC rallied with a five-run bottom stanza to pull within two runs, 8-6.

Georgian Court added two runs in the sixth to go up 10-6, but DC rallied once again with a four-run bottom half of the inning to tie the contest at 10-10.

A game winning double by GCU's Tartaglia in the top of the seventh lifted them to an 11-10 victory, forcing a second game.

In the finale, Georgian Court took a 1-0 lead in the first, but the Lady Chargers responded with two runs in the bottom of the second to take a 2-1 lead.

The Lions tied the game in the third and regained the lead at 5-2 with three runs in the top of the fourth inning and added a run in the fifth to take a 6-2 lead.  Dominican got a run back in their half of the fifth inning on a Dominican solo home run to cut the deficit in half, 6-3.

The Lady Chargers tied the game with three runs in the sixth inning on two-out, back-to-back doubles.

In the bottom of the seventh, catcher Ashley Corrao (Staten, Island, NY) led off the inning with an infield single and Ashley Martinez (Bloomfield, NJ) followed by reaching on a Lion fielding error to put two on with no one out.  Jeppson reached on a fielder's choice which saw Corrao out at third base and senior first basemen Danielle Garrison (Coatesville, PA) delivered the game-winning single to left field to score Martinez and lift Dominican to the 7-6 victory.