LORETTO, Pa. — We're dancing!

(And still in the mix for the NEC postseason title!)

The LIU softball team clinched its first trip to the NCAA Division I tourney since 2016 and ended host Saint Francis U's five-season reign as NEC postseason champion with a 7-3 victory in Friday's losers' bracket final.

The Sharks overcame a one-run deficit with a five-run sixth that included pinch hitter Dallas Andrews' go-ahead two-run double and a three-run homer from Alyssa Polemeni.

LIU will face Merrimack in the NEC championship round on Saturday, with the first pitch scheduled for noon.

However, because Merrimack is still in the transition phase from Division II and remains ineligible for the NCAA tourney, LIU claimed the conference's automatic bid by getting through the losers' bracket.

That's the same scenario that allowed Fairleigh Dickinson to make the NCAA tourney in men's basketball. And the Knights went on to upset top-seeded Purdue in the opening round.

Merrimack narrowly held on to defeat LIU, 3-2, in the opening game on Friday. So the Warriors will need to win only one game on Saturday, while the Sharks would need to force a second game and then win again to claim the NEC postseason title.

"We went back to the hotel, we wiped it all off and we got back on the bus and we pretended it was a new game," Polemeni said about Friday's early loss against Merrimack and the turnaround to face Saint Francis U. "New day, new game. We just restarted. And it worked out for us."

As for the homer, Polemeni added: "I was just looking to get something up in the zone. The first two pitches weren't.  So I was just trying to drive something. Not a home run, just line something."