BRONX, N.Y. – Despite surrendering a seventh-inning surge to force extra innings, second-seeded Loyola Chicago battled down the stretch to advance to the program's first-ever Atlantic 10 Softball Championship final during the team's debut appearance in the league postseason, toppling No. 1 overall Saint Louis behind a thrilling 7-5 margin in nine innings Friday evening at Bahoshy Field.

Victory in hand, the Ramblers move on to the A-10 Championship final on Saturday at noon, rematching fourth-seeded George Mason with a required two wins needed to oust the currently unbeaten Patriots.

The scoring started off bland for both sides, as Loyola initially grabbed one run off an RBI walk in the first before SLU responded with the exact same a half inning later, resetting the board at 1-1. The Ramblers, however, then proceeded to get to work, as a Sydney Barnett RBI double in the third offered a one-run edge before an Emelia Thomas two-score shot to right center during the fifth vaulted LUC to a 4-1 advantage.

Nova Sinskul grounded out for an RBI to wrap up the fifth, securing a four-run edge for the second-seeded Ramblers with just three innings of defense remaining. The bottom of the frame featured a solo homer for Saint Louis' Gabbie Kowalik, igniting a somewhat silent offense up until that point.

SLU continued to rally with two outs in the seventh, battling throughout multiple long at-bats as three different Billikens – Kowalik, Abby Mallo and Kelsey Etling – during consecutive plate appearances tacked on a run to eventually knot the contest and force extra innings.

An uneventful eighth led to a interesting conclusion to the top of the ninth, as a two-out throwing error by the SLU shortstop allowed Sierra Sass to reach as well as Tori Boysen and Teagan Sopczak to cross home plate for a 7-5 Ramblers advantage. With the tank virtually empty, Saint Louis flied out on three straight at-bats to seal the victory for Loyola.

In the circle, Andie Broniewicz put in 7.0 complete innings for the Ramblers before Peyton Pepkowski (15-11) wrapped up the final 2.0 frames of work, combining for 10 hits allowed five runs given up and two total strikeouts.

For the Billikens, Chloe Wendling started things off with the first 5.1 innings, giving up nine hits for five runs (four earned) while setting down a pair on strikes. Taylor Hochman (4-6) concluded the matchup with 3.2 frames in the circle, surrendering the two game-winning runs on four hits with a pair of walks with a trio of strikeouts.