Altoona, PA-It all started with the first game of the day, and it ended with the second game of the day.

D'Youville took a 2-1 lead in the top of the seventh inning on an RBI single from Lauren DeVantier (Niagara Falls, NY/Niagara-Wheatfield). After recording two outs on three pitches in the bottom of the inning, D'Youville was an out away from advancing to tomorrow's championship game and sending top-seeded Penn State Altoona to the elimination bracket.

And then it got away from them.

Back-to-back Altoona singles put runners on first and second. Another base hit scored the tying run and during the sequence a throwing error scored the winning run giving top-seeded Penn State Altoona the 3-2 win.

It was a close game, one that would be expected from the top two seeds of the tournament. D'Youville took a 1-0 in the third on a home run from MacKenzie Kehlenbeck (Oakfield, NY/Oakfield-Alabama) and it was quickly answered by Altoona in the bottom of the same frame. The team's traded three innings of zeros before the seventh inning drama unfolded.

The Spartans never regained their momentum as Pitt-Bradford jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and never looked back eliminating D'Youville from the AMCC Tournament with a 5-2 win.

A Kehlenbeck RBI single after an Alison Hall (Cheektowaga, NY/Depew) double made it a 3-1 game in the fourth inning and that was as close as the Red and White would get. Shannon Evans (Cheektowaga, NY/East Aurora) would homer in the seventh and the Spartans would get no closer..

The Spartans close the season with an 18-17 record.

The present is painful but the future is bright. The team that went 13-5 in AMCC play and was an out away from playing for a conference championship has no seniors on the roster and was starting seven first-year players.