Box score

The defending UMAC-champion Saints staved off elimination in a late Saturday game with a 5-4 win over Martin Luther College in Waconia, Minn., at the 2008 UMAC postseason tournament.

A loser to Northland College in their opening tournament game, St. Scholastica eliminated Martin Luther witha tie-breaking, game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning after earlier blowing a 4-0 lead.

Starter Mary Jo McNamee (Escanaba, Mich./Escanaba Senior HS) had sailed through five scoreless inning on the mound for the Saints allowing just two Knights singles while her teammates put a single run in the first, second, third, and fifth innings for their 4-run lead.

Six outs from victory, McNamee couldn't hold off Martin Luther as they scored three earned and one unearned run before Kayla Jenkins (Esko, Minn./Esko HS) came on in relief to end the inning, one that turned what had looked like certain victory into a game that put the Saints on the brink of elimination themselves.

Neither team scored in their next at-bats, setting the table for a late-inning hero.

Two walks and a Katie Brown (Emmett, Idaho/Emmett HS) single jammed the bases with no outs in the Saints half of the seventh. Mya Gordon (Duluth, Minn./Duluth Central HS)'s grounder to third should have produced at least one out but MartinLuther's Kim Mathies bobbled the ball allowing Gina Garramone (Duluth, Minn./Moorhead Senior HS) -- whose solo home run in the fifth gave the Saints the 4-0 lead -- to come in to score the winning run.

Jenkins picked up the win for the Saints pitching the final one and two-thirds innings and allowing just a pair of hits while striking out two without surrendering a walk.

Kristin Swartz (Hermantown, Minn./Hermantown HS) finished the game with a 3-for-4 performance while seniors Kayla Kahilainen (New York Mills, Minn./New York Mills HS) and Garramone each had two hits apiece.

Next up for the Saints will be a Sunday afternoon match-up with Northwestern College in another elimination game.