ALLIANCE, Ohio – No. 16 ranked and top-seeded Mount Union fell to No. 4 seed Ohio Northern, 5-4, in the semifinals of the Ohio Athletic Conference Softball Tournament Thursday at 23rd Street Field.'

The OAC regular season champion Purple Raiders now have a record of 32-7 after the defeat and will wait for word next week if they will receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Ohio Northern, 22-17 overall, advances to the championship round best of three series starting Saturday at No. 2 seed Muskingum.

Northern led 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth inning when Maddie Pidgeon (Salem / West Branch) tied the game on a two-run home run to right field. The Polar Bears came right back in the sixth with a pair of runs on a triple from Sydney Motylinski and a ground out from Gabby Stewart to take a 5-3 lead.  

Mount Union rallied again in the bottom of the sixth scoring a run on a sacrifice fly RBI from senior Brooklyn Hellman (Canton / Massillon Jackson) to make it 5-4. Northern loaded the bases in the seventh before Alyssa Rose (Madison) got a strikeout to end the threat. 

In the bottom of the seventh, Allie Goldy (Painesville / Riverside) had a two-out double, then tried to score on a Rose single but was thrown out at the plate to end the game.

Pidgeon finished with a pair of hits and two RBI, Goldy had a pair of doubles and Hellman along with Alexis French (Avon Lake / Magnificat) each drove in runs as Mount Union had 10 hits.

Allie Bican allowed a run on four hits over the final 2.2 innings to get the win for Ohio Northern. 

Peyton Morrison started the game in the circle for Mount Union and gave up five runs, three earned, on just four hits over the first 6.0 innings to take just her second loss of the season falling to 14-2.