Greencastle, Ind. - DePauw battled back through the loser's bracket of the North Coast Athletic Conference Softball Tournament to force the "if necessary" game with a 5-1 win over Denison and a 12-5 victory over Hiram. The 27-14-1 Tigers face Hiram in the championship game on Sunday at 11 a.m.

In the Denison game, DePauw jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first as Katie Mathies singled home Goose Moore and then scored when Emily Timberman homered to left.

Ella Kuenster's third-inning double brought home Mathies to make it 4-0. The Big Red reached the board in the fourth as Lellah Ferrari's sacrifice fly plated Annabelle Calderon.

Alex Romero-Salas' solo homer in the fourth wrapped up the scoring.

Timberman had two of DePauw's seven hits, while Indy Workman also had two of Denison's seven.

Romero-Salas improved to 12-5 with Brooke Surbaugh dropping to 10-8 as the Big Red finished their season at 25-12.

DePauw took a 2-0 lead in the second inning of the Hiram game as Kelsey Bernhard reached on a fielder's choice and a pair of errors on the play allowed Ella Ohrvall to score from first and Bernhard to advance to third. Moore's bunt single brought home Bernhard.

Mathies drove in Ella Kuenster with a sacrifice bunt in the third and Alyssa Anderson reached on an error in the fourth that allowed Ohrvall to score and give DePauw a 4-0 lead.

Hiram came back with a five-run fourth capped by bases loaded walks by Fayth Kawamura and Darian Kanno to give the Terriers their first lead of the game at 5-4.

The Tigers tied the contest in the fifth when Macey Cox scored from third after Timberman popped out to second and the throw to the plate was high. Romero-Salas then delivered a double the brought home Mathies and gave DePauw a 6-5 lead.

DePauw tacked on six more runs in the sixth with Romero-Salas finishing the scoring with a two-run homer.

Romero-Salas led DePauw with three of its 10 hits, while Cox and Moore each had two. Four Terriers collected one hit each.

Josi Hair picked up the win and improved to 3-2, while Depa collected her second save. Trinity Meza dropped to 7-3.