COLUMBIA, Mo. - A pair of narrow losses brought an end to the season for the Freed-Hardeman Lady Lions as they fell to No. 20 William Woods (Mo.), 3-2, and Columbia (Mo.), 5-4, at the American Midwest Conference tournament.

FHU came close to an upset in the first game of the day against the regular-season conference champion Owls, but a two-out walk-off home run in the ninth inning by WWU's Kacey Scharnhorst sent the Lady Lions into the elimination bracket.

Facing the same pitcher that tossed a perfect game against them on April 5, the Lady Lions got progressively better at the plate as the day went on. A single by Natalie Nelson in the third inning stopped another perfect game attempt, and moved a runner into scoring position in the fourth after a leadoff single by Katie Sholl.

The Owls, meanwhile, got a pair of solo home runs by Emily Murphy to take a 2-0 lead into the final inning, which is when FHU finally broke through against Mackenzie Bowden.

Kamara Trice led off the inning with a solo home run (7) to break up the shutout, and Nelson later drove in Sarah Elizabeth Cousar with a two-out double to tie the game. Allie Carpenter followed with a hard line-drive to center field, but hit it at William Woods centerfielder Hannah Campbell to strand the go-ahead run at third.

Cousar did the same to the Owls in the bottom of the inning, stranding the winning run at third with two out after getting cleanup hitter Lindsey LeCuru to pop up in the infield.

Both teams missed scoring chances in the eighth, stranding two runners, before FHU was retired in order in the ninth and WWU appeared to be on the way to the same outcome until Scharnhorst hit the first pitch she saw from Cousar over the right field fence.

Freed-Hardeman went immediately to an elimination game against Columbia, which jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two innings. FHU tied it in the fourth after a three-run home run by Bailey Morgan, her sixth of the season.

The Cougars answered in the top of the fifth with a two-run blast from Marli Hayes to retake the lead, ending the day for Trice in the circle. Cousar entered in relief, worked out of a jam in the fifth, and held Columbia scoreless over 2-2/3 innings to give FHU a chance to come back.

Trice's triple in the bottom of the fifth drove in Jessica Weeks to make it 5-4, but that would be the final run the Lady Lions would score as Taylor Richter kept FHU off the board in the sixth and seventh innings and bring the end to the Lady Lions' season at 24-19.

The loss closed out the careers of Cousar, Morgan and Nelson, who helped lead Freed-Hardeman to a record season in 2013 and the program's highest-ever ranking of No. 14 this year. Cousar leaves FHU as the career leader in wins (76), innings pitched (728.1) and runs scored (126) and was one shutout (24) away from tying that career record. The trio won a total of 108 games in their four years as Lady Lions.