TROY, N.Y. – The No. 23 Ithaca College softball team earned a spot in Saturday's Liberty League Championship game as it defeated host team RPI, 5-3, on Friday morning at Doris Robison field.
 
It was the Bombers who put up a run first, in the top of the first inning, to start off what would prove to be a nail biter.
 
With two outs, Vanessa Brown drew a walk before advancing to third on an Alex Wright single. Hannah Anderson sent a RBI single to center field, putting the Bombers up 1-0 early on.
 
RPI, however, wasted no time in tying things up in the bottom half of the inning. With two outs for the Engineers, Cam Caswell blasted a homerun over the right field fence, evening the score, 1-1.
 
The second inning was a quick one, with both teams getting three quick outs, leading the way for a two-run third inning for the Bombers.
 
Allie Colleran led off with a single to short before stealing second and advancing to third on a throwing error. Colleran was driven in by Gabby Laccona, who singled up the left side for a RBI.
 
Laccona stole second to put herself in scoring position before advancing to third on a Brown single to centerfield.  Anderson recorded her second RBI of the game, with a ground out to second, which allowed Laccona to score and put the Bombers up 3-1.
 
RPI looked as though it would add more runs to the board in the bottom of the third inning, but IC was able to work out of a bases-loaded situation. Rebecca Keinz drew a walk to lead off the inning before Victoria Greco was hit by a pitch. Both runners advanced a base on a wild pitch before Caswell drew a walk to load the bases. A pop up and a ground out ended the Engineers' rally and kept the Bombers lead to two runs.
 
Ithaca added another run in the top of the fourth inning. Emily Bloom led off with a bunt and advanced to second on an error. She then advanced to third on an Ellie Murray ground out before scoring on a Nikkey Skuraton sacrifice bunt to give the Bombers a 4-1 lead.
 
After two scoreless innings, RPI put together a rally in the bottom of the sixth inning to cut IC's lead to just one run.
 
Christine White led off with a single to third before Allie Hunt reached base on an error. Maddie Provencher drove in White with a double down the left field line to score the first run of the inning before Hunt scored on a Chelsea Elliot ground out to make the score 4-3, with the Bombers still in the lead.
 
In the top of the seventh inning, Colleran led off with a homerun to left field, giving IC a two-run cushion heading into the bottom half of the inning.
 
Veronica DeStefano led off for the Engineers with a double down the left field line before Caswell reached base on a fielding error. White followed that up with a single to load the bases, but the Bombers picked up the second out with a force at home on the next play. IC secured the win after forcing Provencher to pop up to third base.
 
Colleran finished 2-for-4 on the day with two runs scored and one RBI. Wright also finished 2-for-4 while Bloom went 1-for-2 with a run scored.
 
Shannon Grage picked up the win in the circle for the Bombers, coming on in relief in the third inning to strike out two batters. Haley Congdon picked up the save after pitching the final inning of the game.
 
Ithaca is back in action tomorrow at 12 p.m. against the winner of today's 3 p.m. game between RPI and Rochester.