EDWARDSVILLE (PA) – Jamie Pfitzenmayer drew a bases-loaded walk with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning as second-seeded and defending champion DeSales University rallied for a 5-4 victory over No. 3 Delaware Valley College in the opening round of the double-elimination Freedom Conference Championships held at Wilkes University's Ralston Complex.

With the loss, the Aggies (14-15) now must win four games on Saturday to capture their first-ever Freedom title. That journey will being at 9:00 a.m. when they face top-seeded Misericordia University, which dropped a 7-5 decision to No. 5 King's College in the other opening round contest of the tournament. Delaware Valley and Misericordia split a doubleheader early in the regular season.

With the game tied at 4-4, the Lady Bulldogs' (24-13) Kate Steiner led off the bottom of the seventh with a walk. She moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and then to third on a ground out. Kyra Monarek and Sharon Yudt both drew walks to load the bases to bring Pfitzenmayer to the plate. Pfitzenmayer earned a walk of her own to bring in the winning run.

The playoffs got off to a shaky start for the young Aggie team (eight freshmen on the roster, including seven in Friday's starting lineup) as they committed three errors in the first inning, including two on one play that allowed two runs to score for a 2-0 DeSales advantage.

It stayed that way until the top of the third when Delaware Valley scored four times, all coming with two outs. Sarah Lazar led off with a walk but the next two batters were retired. Freshman Keri Hardiman then doubled to left field to drive home Lazar and put the Aggies on the scoreboard. Fellow rookie Krystal Diaz followed with a two-base hit to plate Hardiman and tie the game. After Bethany Pavlik drew a walk, freshman Erin Fox drove the ball into the right-center field gap for a two-run double and a 4-2 Delaware Valley lead.

DeSales came right back in the bottom of the third and loaded the bases with nobody out thanks to a walk, an Aggie error and a bunt single. However, Delaware Valley freshman hurler Maggie Kichler retired the next three batters to escape the jam. Kichler pitched out of trouble again in the fourth as the Lady Bulldogs put runners on first and third with two outs, but a grounder to Lazar at second ended the inning.

DeSales used the long ball to tie the game in the fifth as both Jen Lococco and Erin Moran hit solo home runs over the left field fence. Kichler was replaced by fellow rookie Becky Furman and she held the Lady Bulldogs in check for the rest of the fifth and sixth innings to keep the game tied

In the top of the seventh, Delaware Valley opened with two outs before Hardiman walked and Diaz followed with a base hit. That brought up the team's top hitter in Pavlik, but the two-time all-conference honoree fouled out to right to end the chance. DeSales then scored in the bottom of the inning to advance to the winner's bracket and put the Aggies in a must-win situation on Saturday.

Diaz and Hardiman had two hits and one RBI apiece for Delaware Valley while Fox was 1-for-3 with two RBIs. Kichler went four-plus innings and allowed four runs (two earned) and six hits. Furman suffered the loss in relief and fell to 2-5 on the year.

Katie Morrisey improved to 13-6 for DeSales as the freshman went the distance and allowed four runs and six hits while striking out nine. Lococco was the lone Bulldog to have a multiple-hit day as she went 2-for-4 with a ru scored and an RBI.