This post was written by Hatchet reporter Josh Solomon.

With two outs in the bottom of the seventh and the tying run on first Sunday, senior Autumn Taylor drove a ball to deep right-center field.  The ball dropped into the right fielder’s glove at the fence, below where parents and friends cheered on the seniors in the final home game.

Third out, game over, Senior Day over.

GW had a chance to win the A-10 conference for the first time in program history entering the doubleheader, needing to sweep the Hawks to earn the regular season title.

But it quickly unraveled into a day in which the Colonials could not win the conference, and could not secure a first-round tournament bye. They will enter the tournament as the fourth seed.

With Taylor up with the game on the line in game two, GW needed just a win to clinch second place and the first round bye. Fordham had just beaten Temple, meaning both teams finished at 15-7 with a .682 winning percentage in conference. A win would put GW in second place at 14-6 with a .700 winning percentage.

Instead, the ball dropped for out three.

“Frustration. You lose a game 2-1, it’s frustrating. You lose a game in the seventh inning, it’s frustrating,” head coach Stacey Schramm said. “We just can’t have an off day against Saint Joe’s or Temple or UMass or anyone at the top of the conference. We can’t. We’re just not good enough to make mistakes and overcome it.”

The game two loss was difficult for the Colonials to swallow, especially after the way the first game ended. GW was on their way to a win, carrying a 2-0 lead into the top of the seventh.

The Colonials scored their two runs early on, one in the first and one in the second, both of which were unearned. Senior Amanda Zakeri led off the bottom half of the first with a walk, advanced to second on an error and scored on a RBI single from sophomore Victoria Valos. In the second, GW scored another run off a throwing error, but once again left two runners stranded on base.

In the seventh, junior Courtney Martin went out to complete the game, holding a six hit shutout to that point. A botched ball at third, followed by a bunt base hit and a ball under the glove at second base, set the stage for a Hawks.  They capitalized with a home run and a five-run inning off three errors and three hits.

GW didn’t have the offense to battle back in the bottom of the inning, relinquishing their chance to win the regular season title.

“We try to say we have two seconds to get over things. Two seconds to get over an error. Two seconds to get over a strikeout. It was one of those things where we were down and we were frustrated but I said, ‘It’s our senior day. It’s a big day. We have all these fans here, we can still fight for second place.’ And they were ready,” Schramm said.

The second game brought a new focus: win the game and have a chance to finish second overall, and claim a first round bye.

Freshman Meghan Rico started for the Colonials, throwing six innings while allowing two runs and five walks.

The Hawks struck early with one run in the top of the first inning. Rico walked back-to-back batters on full counts with two outs and runners on second and third, driving in one run.

GW had an opportunity to respond in the first, but on a Taylor double down the left field line, Valos rounded third too wide as her coach signaled for her to stop, and was picked off on the relay throw for the third out of the inning.

Taylor later doubled in the fifth to drive in the only GW run of the game, but Rico gave that run right back in the sixth. Again, Rico walked two batters, including the leadoff hitter who eventually scored for what would be the game-winning run.

“I was just going to focus on keeping the batters off balanced, mixing in as many pitches as I could. It seemed to work pretty well but I just kind of let it go with the walks. It was really disappointing because I wanted to win this one for the seniors,” Rico said.

In the bottom of the seventh, it seemed the Colonials still had a chance with the top of the lineup due up. Zakeri, though, grounded out, Fogarty reached on a fumbled ball to the shortstop, and Valos flied out to center.

Then, with two outs, the senior – Taylor – with two doubles already on the day, looked to tie it up. She hit the ball hard to the fence, but to her and her team’s dismay it was caught to end the game. She slowly walked off the field, batting gloves still on, clinging onto her helmet, not ready to let go.

“I’m going to remember that I played as hard as I could but things didn’t happen to go my way but I can say that I left it all out on the field,” Taylor said.

GW will play Saint Louis, the fifth-seed, in the first round of the A-10 tournament Wednesday in Amherst, Mass.