Box Score SAINT LEO, Fla. | The magical ride for The University of Alabama in Huntsville softball team's 13 Strong came to an end on Saturday as Saint Leo won 6-3 in game three of the 2018 NCAA Division II Softball South Super Regional.
 
The Chargers end the year at 39-18, while the Lions move on to the Division II National Championship round at 37-16.
 
UAH fielded a team this season that had no seniors and just three juniors, but the squad's future shines so brightly at the conclusion of this campaign that saw the team finish third in the always-tough Gulf South Conference en route to the program's 16th straight NCAA tournament berth.
 
The Chargers finish the season batting .339 as a team and with a GSC-best 71 home runs while scoring 432 times. The team also ends the year with the league's best slugging percentage at .557 while ranking second in on-base percentage at .431.
 
On Saturday, Saint Leo grabbed the lead in the third with a run and added on to make it 2-0 in the fourth before taking a commanding lead with a grand slam in the fifth to go up 6-0.
 
The Chargers – as was to be expected – did not go down without a fight as Alaina Hampton doubled in the top of the sixth before an Amber Hammonds walk, allowing Shannon Long to cut the lead in the half with her second homer in as many games.
 
The three-run jack gives Long four for the season.
 
Layton Murphy – who had entered the game in the fifth and stopped the bleeding by retiring the last two batters of the inning – then gave UAH a chance by retiring Saint Leo in order to send UAH's 2-3-4 hitters to the plate trailing 6-3.
 
With one out in the inning, Brooke Miller and Jada Hayes both singled to bring the tying run to the plate in Kiara Akles, and Friday's heroine gave the softball a strong ride but unfortunately to the deepest part of the park where it caught up against the fence in center for the second out.
 
UAH would load the bases when Alaina Hampton was hit by a pitch, but the Saint Leo second baseman would catch a liner at her hit well off the bat of Amber Hammonds to end the game.
 
Hampton ends her freshman year as the team leader in RBI as she drove in 57 on the year, and both she and Akles tied for the team lead in home runs with 14.