ITHACA, N.Y. -- The softball team (30-13) rallied for a 2-1 win over St. John Fisher in Saturday's fourth and final game of the NCAA regional being held at Ithaca's Kostrinsky Field. The second-seeded Bombers eliminated the fifth-seeded Cardinals to advance to Sunday's consolation bracket final, where they'll face the sixth-seeded Keuka Storm. The winner of that game (note: the time of the Ithaca-Keuka game has been changed to 10 a.m.) will need to beat top-seeded Messiah twice to claim the regional title.

Ithaca, who has made an NCAA-record 24 trips to the Division III playoffs, is a win away from reaching the regional final for the 10th time in the past 13 years.

Senior left fielder Britt Lillie (Honeoye Falls-Lima/Mendon) tied the game at 1-1 with a fourth-inning home run and sophomore center fielder Jennifer Biondi (Morris Knolls/Rockaway, N.J.) singled home the winning run in the bottom of the fifth.

Lillie's one-out home run was her sixth of the season and the 16th of her career. She now ranks fourth on the prgoram's all-time list.

An inning later, Biondi's infield hit plated sophomore Adrienne Walters (Solon/Solon, Ohio) with the decisive run. Walters entered the game as a pinch-runner for senior Kerry Barger (Carmel/Carmel) -- who'd led off the fifth with a single, moved to second on a base hit by senior pitcher Alison Greaney (John F. Kennedy/Iselin, N.J.) and stole third before Biondi's hit.

Greaney earned her second win of the day, allowing four hits over seven innings. She allowed only two runners past second and didn't issue a walk. Greaney (12-3) struck out three Cardinals,

St. John Fisher used a pair of two-out singles to put the tying and go-ahead runs on base in the third inning but the game ended when Greaney deflected a sharply hit ground ball to senior second baseman Kait Dolan (Farmington/Victor), who forced the trail runner at second base.


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