The Hillsdale College softball team opened Friday morning with a gut-wrenching loss.

The third-seeded Chargers ended the day as one of two teams left standing to battle for a regional title on Saturday.

Hillsdale rallied from a brutal 13-inning loss in one of the longest softball games in Chargers softball history to open the NCAA DII Midwest Regional at Tiffin, winning two high-stakes elimination games to match their deepest run in the tournament and putting the team just two wins away from the program's first ever regional crown -- and all in 24 hours.

After that 3-2 loss to sixth-seeded Lewis that spanned two days, starting on Thursday and finishing on Friday morning, Hillsdale returned in the afternoon and bounced back in a 3-0 shutout victory to eliminate host and second-seeded Tiffin. That got the Chargers a rematch with Lewis and Hillsdale was able to get redemption against the Flyers, exploding for double-digit runs in an 11-7 victory.

Lewis 3, Hillsdale 2 -- 13 inn.

First, the opening loss to Lewis. Thanks to a rain delay, Hillsdale's first contest started three hours late on Thursday, and the Chargers fell behind 1-0 in the first inning. 

Hillsdale didn't trail for long, taking the lead in the bottom of the second. The Chargers opened the inning with back-to-back singles by Maggie Olaveson and Hannah Hoverman, who were moved over to scoring position by a sacrifice bunt from Anna Chellman. Olaveson scored on a sacrifice fly by Olivia Liguori, and Hoverman scored on a wild pitch to give Hillsdale 2-1 lead.

The Chargers held that edge for the next three innings, but in the top of the sixth, Lewis got its first two runners on, and tied the game at 2-2 on a RBI single.

With neither team able to score in the seventh inning, the game went to extra innings. Both teams got runners to third base in the eighth but couldn't find a breakthrough hit, and Hillsdale also stranded baserunners in the eighth and ninth. By that point, daylight had run out on the game that had started at 6 p.m., and forced a stoppage of the contest for the night.

The two teams reconvened on Friday morning in the top of the 11th with the score still tied at 2. The two teams struggled through two more scoreless innings before Lewis used a leadoff walk in the top of the 13th to manufacture the go-ahead and winning run. Hillsdale couldn't answer in the bottom of the inning and took a bitter defeat that dropped it into the elimination bracket.

Hillsdale ace Joni Russell (22-3) was the hard-luck loser, pitching all 13 innings and striking out 17 batters along with 10 walks in the longest start of her career.

Hannah Hoverman led the Chargers at the plate with a single and a double, and Maggie Olaveson and Olivia Liguori each added two hits as well.

Hillsdale 3, Tiffin 0

The opening loss gave Hillsdale an afternoon date with G-MAC rival Tiffin, which also suffered a tough 2-1 extra-inning loss to Indianapolis in its first NCAA Regional contest on Thursday.

Along with season-ending stakes for the loser, the matchup with the Dragons carried extra intrigue, as it was a rematch of the G-MAC Tournament final just six days prior that was called in the fifth inning with Hillsdale holding an 11-4 lead, resulting in the Chargers winning the G-MAC Tourney crown by default.

With its season on the line, Hillsdale delivered a pitching and defensive masterpiece, handing the 43-win Dragons their first shutout loss in 37 games. A combined effort by starter Grace Harris, who went two innings, and Mackenzi Maxson (6-7), who pitched the final five and earned the win, kept Tiffin off the scoreboard, aided by several standout defensive plays and error-free softball.

Hillsdale found Tiffin's freshman sensation in the circle, Isabella O'Brien, equally tough to deal with, as it took until the top of the fifth inning for the Chargers to record their first hit.

Under pressure in the bottom of the sixth, Hillsdale's offense finally broke through with three runs to hand O'Brien her first loss of the season. The Chargers strung together two back-to-back hits from Sydney Davis and Ashley Strick, then Emma Sather drew a walk to load the bases with no outs. 

Emma Vis took advantage to get the Chargers on the board with a sacrifice fly, and Olaveson added another with a RBI single. Sather also scored on the play on an error by center field, giving Hillsdale a 3-0 lead that would hold up as Maxson finished off the game in the top of the seventh.

Hillsdale had just four hits against the Dragons but three of them came in the same inning to get the Chargers the runs they needed to win and keep their season alive.

Hillsdale 11, Lewis 7

The victory meant Hillsdale had to play again in another elimination contest, this time a rematch against Lewis after the Flyers fell to Indianapolis 7-4 in the winner's bracket final earlier in the day.

With both teams having already played 20 innings of softball before the start of their Friday evening contest, fatigue played a major factor as both squads combined for 11 errors in the game. 

Hillsdale again fell behind at the start, as Lewis took a 1-0 lead on a Chargers fielding error in the bottom of the second inning. This time, however, Hillsdale responded in a big way in the top of the third, stringing together three straight singles from Chellman, Strick and Sather to open the inning and load the bases with no outs. A throwing error by Lewis on the next play tied the game and kept the bases loaded with no outs as Emma Vis came to the plate.

In the Chargers' first tourney game against Lewis, Vis had had a rough outing, going 0 for 6 at the plate. With a shot at redemption against the same opponent on the same, day, Vis didn't miss, blasting a ball over the right-centerfield fence for a grand slam that gave the Chargers a 5-1 lead.

Hillsdale would tack on another run on an error later in the third inning, then scored four more in the fourth to build a 10-1 lead, on two bases-loaded walks and a two-run single by Olivia Liguori.

It looked like the Chargers were cruising to victory, but Lewis refused to go down quietly with its season on the line. A three-run home run by the Flyers in the fifth ended Hillsdale's bid at a run-rule ending, and another run in the sixth cut a once-massive Hillsdale lead to 10-6. 

Lewis would never get the deficit closer than four runs, however. The Chargers tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh, taking advantage of three straight Flyers errors, and though Lewis would get a run back in the seventh, Hillsdale pitcher Grace Harris got the final fly-out to end the threat.

For the second straight game, Harris and Maxson combined to guide the Chargers to victory in the circle, with Harris pitching the first, sixth and seventh innings and Maxson (7-7) getting the Chargers through the middle ones to earn the victory.

Hannah Hoverman once again finished with a single and a double to lead the Chargers at the plate, as Hillsdale was out-hit 13-8 by Lewis but punished the Flyers for their mistakes in the victory to end Lewis' season.

Thanks to the two elimination game victories, Hillsdale improves to 38-17 on the season and will face seventh-seeded Indianapolis in the Midwest Regional championship game on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Greyhounds have the winner's bracket advantage and only need to beat Hillsdale once to claim the title, while the Chargers must win twice over UIndy to claim the crown. However, the resilient Chargers will come in with momentum of their own after Friday's wins, and will look to make history one more time on Saturday.