West Virginia State was within one out of another milestone Thursday.

The Yellow Jackets nearly upset defending national champion Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, but the Cougars came through in the bottom of the eighth inning to pull out a 6-5 win in the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Regional softball tournament at Edwardsville, Ill.

Nicole Beecher laced a two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the eighth to rally top-seeded Edwardsville (46-9) in both teams' double-elimination tournament opener. State and Edwardsville were scheduled to open Wednesday, but severe weather pushed their game back to Thursday.

State (41-15), seeded eighth in the eight-team tournament, is making its first appearance in NCAA postseason play. The Yellow Jackets captured their first West Virginia Conference softball title Saturday.

The Cougars used an error, single and walk to load the bases in the eighth with one out. State's Bobbi Harper threw out Edwardsville's Chaleen Rumpf at the plate for the second out when Rumpf tried to score on Ashley Price's grounder. Beecher followed with her winning hit to left-center field.

"We thought we had them beat,'' said third-year State coach Bob Allen in a phone interview from Edwardsville, Ill. "They hit a little blooper to left field that I thought we were going to catch and it dropped. If we made a couple plays we would have won it.

"[Edwardsville] knew they were in a ballgame. I just hope we can get our chins back up. The kids are heartbroken. We had to sit in a motel for almost two days before we got to play. They played their hearts out. We just came up a little bit short.'' 

State's Sammi Kinder (25-8), the WVC pitcher of the year, took the loss despite allowing just three earned runs. Edwardsville, which is moving to Division I next season, took advantage of the Yellow Jackets' three errors for three unearned runs. Kinder scattered 12 hits and walked four in 72/3 innings.

The Yellow Jackets took a 5-4 lead in the top of the eighth when Charli Small scored on an error. State had a chance to avoid extra innings when it grabbed a 4-3 advantage in the top of the seventh on Casey Jo Crawford's run-scoring single. Crawford finished 2-for-3 with a double and Faith Amrein rapped out a pair of hits.

Edwardsville, however, answered in the bottom half when Lindsay Longfellow drove in the tying run with one out. Kinder induced a double-play grounder to force extra innings.

The Yellow Jackets grabbed a 3-1 edge in the top of the third on Margaret Osborne's two-run double and Harper's RBI single. Edwardsville tied the game at 3 with two runs in the bottom half.

State fell into the losers bracket and faced Indianapolis late Thursday night. Indianapolis, which lost earlier Thursday 1-0 to Wayne State, is coached by former Marshall standout Missy Frost.

West Virginia State was within one out of another milestone Thursday.

The Yellow Jackets nearly upset defending national champion Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, but the Cougars came through in the bottom of the eighth inning to pull out a 6-5 win in the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Regional softball tournament at Edwardsville, Ill.

Nicole Beecher laced a two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the eighth to rally top-seeded Edwardsville (46-9) in both teams' double-elimination tournament opener. State and Edwardsville were scheduled to open Wednesday, but severe weather pushed their game back to Thursday.

State (41-15), seeded eighth in the eight-team tournament, is making its first appearance in NCAA postseason play. The Yellow Jackets captured their first West Virginia Conference softball title Saturday.

The Cougars used an error, single and walk to load the bases in the eighth with one out. State's Bobbi Harper threw out Edwardsville's Chaleen Rumpf at the plate for the second out when Rumpf tried to score on Ashley Price's grounder. Beecher followed with her winning hit to left-center field.

"We thought we had them beat,'' said third-year State coach Bob Allen in a phone interview from Edwardsville, Ill. "They hit a little blooper to left field that I thought we were going to catch and it dropped. If we made a couple plays we would have won it.

"[Edwardsville] knew they were in a ballgame. I just hope we can get our chins back up. The kids are heartbroken. We had to sit in a motel for almost two days before we got to play. They played their hearts out. We just came up a little bit short.'' 

State's Sammi Kinder (25-8), the WVC pitcher of the year, took the loss despite allowing just three earned runs. Edwardsville, which is moving to Division I next season, took advantage of the Yellow Jackets' three errors for three unearned runs. Kinder scattered 12 hits and walked four in 72/3 innings.

The Yellow Jackets took a 5-4 lead in the top of the eighth when Charli Small scored on an error. State had a chance to avoid extra innings when it grabbed a 4-3 advantage in the top of the seventh on Casey Jo Crawford's run-scoring single. Crawford finished 2-for-3 with a double and Faith Amrein rapped out a pair of hits.

Edwardsville, however, answered in the bottom half when Lindsay Longfellow drove in the tying run with one out. Kinder induced a double-play grounder to force extra innings.

The Yellow Jackets grabbed a 3-1 edge in the top of the third on Margaret Osborne's two-run double and Harper's RBI single. Edwardsville tied the game at 3 with two runs in the bottom half.

State fell into the losers bracket and faced Indianapolis late Thursday night. Indianapolis, which lost earlier Thursday 1-0 to Wayne State, is coached by former Marshall standout Missy Frost.