AMHERST, Mass.—Fifth-seeded La Salle scored four runs in the fifth and won its second-consecutive elimination game, defeating second-seeded Saint Louis, 5-4, in the Atlantic 10 Softball Championship at Sortino Field Thursday evening.

La Salle (15-21) advances to face top-seeded Dayton (37-13) Friday at 2:30 p.m.

Leadoff hitter Michelle Hagarty went 2-for-4 with a two-run home run in the big inning for the Explorers. The top four batters in the La Salle lineup combined for five of the seven hits and all three RBI.

Mary Cate Scott (8-5) relieved starter McKenzie Peace in the first inning and worked 6.1 innings for the victory. She struck out four and allowed just one earned run.

La Salle went ahead 1-0 in the first when Hagarty singled and scored from second on a Suzanne Swanicke double.

SLU came right back with one in the first and two unearned runs in the second for a 3-1 lead. Both runs in the second scored on plays that involved infield throwing errors.

The Explorers opened the fifth with a Marisa Kinneer double before a double play put two outs on the board. That’s when Kendra Heyer walked and Hagarty crushed a ball over the 40-foot tall scoreboard in left tie the game at 3-3.

Linnette Siedler and Christina Bascara had consecutive singles before Swanicke hit a ground ball to short that was mishandled by Alex Nickel, allowing Siedler to score the go-ahead run. Valerie Pineiro got a run home with a ball to third that was not fielded cleanly by Elizabeth Everingham.

The Billikens came back in the bottom half and scored a run before leaving two on base. They left eight on in the game.

Maddie Baalman (10-7) was the second of three pitchers used but was the hard-luck loser after allowing three runs on three hits in 2.2 innings.

SLU (36-18) out hit La Salle 9-7 but lost for the second time on Thursday after entering the double-elimination championship with seven-consecutive wins.