Waterville, ME - The North Atlantic Conference #3 seed Univrsity of Maine at Presque Isle and #1 seed Thomas College battled tooth and nail for 7 full innings before the Terriers pulled out a thrilling 5 to 4 victory and earned an opportunity to play in the Championship game tomorrow at Colby College vs. Husson University.

The lead in this game changed hands or was tied several times throughout the game as the Owls struck early with a run in the 1st inning when Jordan Hansen (Fr. Phillips, NE) reached on an error on a hard hit grounder that handcuffed the Thomas shortstop. Hansen was moved over to 2nd base on a sacrifice bunt by Jordi Legassie (Sr. Presque Isle, ME). After a fly out, Melanee Terry (So. Moreno Valley, CA) lined a basehit to left center scoring Hansen as Terry was thrown out at 2nd base on a close play trying to stretch her hit into a double.

In the bottom of the 1st the Terriers quickly tied the game up 1 to 1 when leadoff hitter Lexi Colpack dropped a single into centerfield. Colpack would steal 2nd base and then move to 3rd on a passed ball and score on a wild pitch. 

Neither team would score until the top of the 4th inning when UMPI shortstop Sarah Duncklee (Jr. Kearny, AZ) cracked a long homerun to give the Owls a 2 to 1 advantage.

In the bottom of the 5th Anna Piirainen would leadoff the inning grounding a single to leftfield off UMPI starting pitcher Marissa Valdivia Reagle (So. Seattle, WA) and the Owls would make a pitching change coming in with Brookelynn Garcia. Katie Taylor would lay down a sacrifice bunt moving Piirainen to 2nd base. Piirainen would score on a single to center by Lexi Colpack.  Garcia would induce a groundout to Duncklee at shortstop for the second out of the inning before Kayla Bess would draw a walk. Cleanup hitter Sydney Lebourveau would line a single into right center to bring in 2 runs and the Terriers took a 4 to 2 lead. 

Me-Presque Isle would come back again in the 6th inning and tie the game up again. With one out Jordi Legassie lined a single into centerfield. With 2 outs and a 3-2 count, Mel Terry hit a homerun over the centerfield fence to knott the game at 4 to 4. 

UMPI would shut down Thomas College in the bottom of the 6th inning but the Owls could not push the go ahead run across the plate in the top of the 7th. Thomas leadoff hitter Lexi Colpack would ground a ball into the hole between short and third and beat out an infield hit to start the bottom of the frame. Colpack would then steal 2nd base to get into scoring position. Lauren Guppy dropped down a sacrifice bunt moving Colpack to 3rd base with one out. Reagle who came back in to pitch the 7th for the Owls got Kayla Bess to hit a groundball to 3rd base but Colpack was able to slide in just under the tag at the plate and the Terriers walked off with a dramatic 5 to 4 win.

Terry had 2 hits for the Owls while Colpack had 3 hits for Thomas College. 

Katlyn Coulter (10-2) got the win on the mound for the Terriers going 7 innings, allowing 4 runs on 6 hits, walking 0 and striking out 3. Reagle (5-3) was a hard luck loser in the circle for UMPI.