ERIE, Pa. -- The Mount Aloysius Softball team was playing their fifth game in three days, on Saturday, as they squared off against Penn State Behrend in the AMCC Championship. After losing their first game of the tournament, Mount Aloysius won three straight games on Friday to advance to the championship matchup. While the Lions only needed one win, the Mounties needed to beat them twice to win the title.

Mount Aloysius seemed to be out of gas on the final day of the tournament. They fell behind early and despite a comback attempt, were unable to overcome the deficit.

Penn State Behrend scored the first run of the game, in the second inning, on a sac fly. They added a three-run homerun in the third inning and another sacrifice fly in the fourth inning, growing their lead to 5-0. What made that stretch worse was that the Mounties had gone down, in order, through the first four innings.

In the top of the fifth, the Mounties started to make some noise. With one out and two runners in scoring position, Bella Piacesi (Woodbridge, Va. / Charles Cogan) produced an RBI groundout, getting the Mounties on the board. Then, with two outs and a runner on third, Maya Capozzoli (Camp Hill, Pa. / Cedar Cliff) singled up the middle to drive home Kendra Gardner (Mount Union, Pa. / Mount Union), making the score 5-2. Gardner reached on a single earlier in the inning, as she and Capozzoli accounted for two of the three Mountie hits.

While Mount Aloysius did get a single from Alysha Cutri (Imperial, Pa. / Bishop Canevin) in the seventh inning, that would not be enough, falling to Penn State Behrend, 5-2. Brenna Watts (Thompsontown, Pa. / East Juniata) pitched extremely well out of the Mountie bullpen, going 3.0 innings and not allowing a baserunner.

Mount Aloysius ends the season with a 20-15 record. After a rough start to the season that saw them open 6-10, including four straight conference losses, the Mounties finished the regular season 11-3 and earned the number three seed. They then went 3-2 and made an appearance in the AMCC Championship game, their first since 2021.