For the second straight day, the Cougars could not take advantage of scoring opportunities and made defensive mistakes as they were eliminated in a American Midwest Conference tournament semifinal, losing to the Owls 5-1 yesterday.

The one positive note the Cougars (31-16), the No. 2 seed, can take from an otherwise disappointing tournament is that they will receive an automatic bid into the NAIA Region V tournament after No. 1 seed McKendree (30-14) beat William Woods (32-21) in the final 4-2.

Since the top team in the regular season won the tournament, the No. 1 and 2 seeds receive bids.

"McKendree solidified that berth for us and I thought that was really important," Cougar coach Wendy Spratt said. "It's nice to know that you're going and you don't have to wait to see if you're one of the teams that's one the bubble."

In the tournament, though, William Woods had the Cougars' number.

Owls starting pitcher and honorable mention all-conference Lynn Otto had another strong performance against the Cougars, who beat Missouri Baptist 2-0 earlier in the day to stay alive.

After allowing leadoff hitter Megan Kuntze to score in the first inning, Otto shut out the rest of the Cougars with a mix of curveballs, off speed and drop pitches.

"I think that Lynn had the advantage of knowing the hitters after pitching five innings on Friday," Owls coach Tracy Gastineau said. "For this to happen and to hold a team to one run today, and no runs on Friday, that's all you can ask for. She stepped it up when she needed to."

William Woods tied the game at 1 when Rock Bridge grad Stacey Smarr scored from third by beating a throw from second baseman Adrianne Talbert. Then Hickman grad Tara Fiene hit a grounder to pitcher Jayne Miller but no one covered first. Fiene eventually scored the go-ahead run on Amy Books' slow roller to Katie Dooley, who made the play at first and allowed the speedy Fiene to score.

"There was a lot of miscommunication," Miller said. "We could have made better decisions out there. That got their momentum up and it kind of got us rattled and down."

The Owls scored three runs in the third and added one each in the fifth and seventh to expand their lead over the Cougars. For the second consecutive game against the Owls, Columbia College failed to convert on a late scoring opportunity.

In the fifth, Amy Seipp, who went 3 for 3 against William Woods on Friday, was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out. Dooley struck out and first team all-conference selection Kristina Jones grounded out to end the inning.

"That was quite exciting," Otto said. "You never want the bases loaded when you only have one out. But we got through it and that's all that matters. It could have gone the other way but it didn't."