Garden City, N.Y.- A Caldwell College sacrifice fly snapped a 1-1 stalemate in the seventh inning to push the No. 2 Cougars past No. 7 Georgian Court University, 2-1, in the NCAA Division II East Region 2 championship round Sunday afternoon at Adelphi University's Janet L. Ficke Field. 

Georgian Court's magical postseason comes to an abrupt end with a record of 33-24 while Caldwell (44-7) advances to its first Super Regional since 2004, now facing No.1 seed LIU Post in a best-of-three series to determine which squad will earn a berth in the NCAA Division II Softball World Series at the end of the month in Salem, Virginia.

With the game knotted at one, Caldwell's Megan Fryday (Jr.-San Marcos, Calif.) ripped a one-out double to left. After Nicole Velardi (Sr.-Belleville, N.J.) walked, a controversial illegal pitch was called on GCU freshman pitcher Abby Merryman (Sewell, N.J.), who had just entered the game in relief of starting pitcher Deanna Daluise (Sr.-Manalapan, N.J.). With the runners now on second and third, Amy Hickman (Fr.-Jackson, N.J.) lofted a shallow fly ball to left, scoring Fryday from third with the game-winner.

Amber Padilla (So.-Chino, Calif.) retired the Lions in order in the bottom of the seventh to clinch the victory. She permitted just two hits and one run while striking out four without a walk in the complete game, improving to 18-4. Daluise (13-10) suffered the loss for GCU, permitting two runs on four hits and three walks in 6.1 innings of work. 

Caldwell took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Kristen Knorr (Jr.-Monroeville, N.J.) led off the contest with a walk and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from Caitlin McCready (So.-Jupiter, Fla.). Brielle Reighn (So.-Runnemeade, N.J.) proceeded to plate Knorr from second with an RBI single. The Lions pulled even in the bottom of the second after a lead-off double by Taylor McDonough (Sr.-Toms River, N.J.), a sacrifice bunt from Emma Erbig (Sr.-Brick, N.J.) and a sac fly by Justine Mattia (Sr.-Williamstown, N.J.).