The top-seeded Alfred University softball team forced the necessary Game 7 of the Empire 8 Championship double-elimination tournament as the No. 4–seeded St. John Fisher College Cardinals fell 3-1 on Saturday at the nationally-ranked Saxons' Harrington Park.
 
Fisher and Alfred will fight for the title at 1 p.m. Sunday and the Cardinals earn the home-team advantage. The Cardinals look to earn their fifth title overall and the first since the 2013 season, while the Saxons searches for their first.
 
Lindsey Thayer opened the title game with four straight strikeouts. The Saxons tallied their first hit until the bottom of the third inning when Sophia Chiavatti hit a deep ball to left center, where it dropped between Jennifer Knaak and Meghan Burns.
 
Pinch runner Samantha Jo Muller later scored Alfred's first run of the day on an error, where Kate Disbrow threw to Danielle Ventrone at first, but she saw the ball tip her glove.
 
In the top of the inning, Fisher earned the run back, though. With two outs, Emma Savas picked up the Cardinals with a line drive that dropped just in front of a diving Samantha Jauregui in right field. In the next at-bat, Ventrone hit a double to left center to tie the game.
 
It remained a tied game until the bottom of the fifth inning when Jasmine Picini hit a solo home run over the left field fence. Soon the Saxons made it a 3-1 game when Nora Passuite doubled and later scored on a Thayer overthrow to first base.
 
The Cardinals tried to respond in the next top half of the inning, as Neale hit a longball to the left field warning track and Savas popped up to right field, but they couldn't produce any runs.
 
Ventrone led the offense with a double and the lone RBI. Burns added a double, as well.
 
Thayer recorded another complete-game effort, allowing four hits, three runs (one earned) and one walk with seven strikeouts.