Holy Family will play Georgian Court (33-13) in an elimination game today at noon. Georgian Court advanced with a 9-4 win over Lyndon State (15-8) of Lyndonville, Vt. Should Holy Family (36-8) win that game, it would then have to beat St. Joseph's (29-9) twice to claim the regional's automatic World Series invitation.
St. Joseph's beat Lyndon State, 4-2, in its opener. The NAIA World Series is May 24-28 in Palm Beach, Fla.
Holy Family, which battled back from a 5-2 deficit to tie St. Joseph's in the top of the seventh inning, saw the Monks win it with a run in the bottom half of the inning.
``We do this every year. It seems like we like to make things hard on ourselves,'' said Holy Family pitcher Allison Maddock, who earned the victory in the first game before absorbing the defeat in relief in the second game.
``We're not discouraged,'' she said. ``We'll pull together and come back firing tomorrow.''
The Tigers used a pair of base hits, a walk and a two-base error in their late rally in the second game and had runners at second and third with one out.
But St. Joseph's reliever Sarah Webster retired the last two batters she faced to halt the comeback.
Sharon Brown paced the Tigers with three hits. Suzanne Rooney had two of Holy Family's four hits in the opener.
``It's a tough road to come back from,'' Holy Family coach Mickey McGroarty said. ``But we've been there before. We know what it takes.''
