Thumbnail photo is by Ray Stauble and Courtesy of Temple Athletics

St. Louis, Mo. –

For the second year in a row, the Charlotte softball team was responsible for knocking Temple out of the Atlantic 10 Championship. The third-seeded Owls fell to the fifth-seeded 49ers, 4-2, in their second game of the day at the Billiken Sports Center on the campus of Saint Louis University on Wednesday evening.

The Owls (27-22) got on the board first in the bottom of the first.Ali Robinson

drew a leadoff walk, and two outs later stole second beforeStephanie Pasquale

sent a double down the left field line to bring her around for the 1-0 lead. That double from Pasquale gave her 14th on the year, tying the Temple single-season record.

Capri Catalano

(8-8) threw two more scoreless innings before Charlotte (29-25) got to her for one run in the fourth. The 49ers went on to score one run in each of the final four innings.

Two singles to open the fourth put two runners on for Charlotte, and a sacrifice bunt moved them to second and third. Chelsea Ingersoll's ball hit to second base resulted in a run scoring, knotting the game at 1-1.

The 49ers took the lead, 2-1, in the top of the fifth on a bloop infield single from the bat of Kalie Lang. Lorena Vela was hit by a pitch to open the inning, Briana Gwaltney reached on an error to put runners on the corners, and one out later, Lang's blooper dropped in despite a diving effort from first basemanRachel Knable

.

Charlotte made it a 3-1 game in the sixth when Vela hit a line drive into right center to score pinch runner Natalie Capone. Capone entered to run for Ingersoll, who had singled to open the inning. The 49ers methodically moved her around the bags with a sacrifice bunt and a groundout to shortstop before Vela's second hit of the game.

Ingersoll hurt the Owls again with a single up the middle in the seventh, driving in another run to make it 4-1 in favor of Charlotte. Lang singled with one out, and Hayley Lewis came in as a pinch runner. Lewis moved to second on another sacrifice bunt, and Ingersoll's hit brought her around.

Down to its final three outs of the season, TU put together a rally in the bottom of the seventh. Robinson sent a two-out ground-rule double to centerfield to put a runner on.Samantha Schoell

followed with a single to nearly the same spot, plating Robinson and cutting it to 4-2. Pitcher Katie Watkins (13-12) induced a line out to end the game, though and advance Charlotte to the next day.

Temple finishes the season at 27-22.

Tags: Atlantic 10 Conference, Temple Owls