It wasn't the ending anyone expected.

Finishing in a tie for second during the regular season, St. Ambrose saw its season come to a close after just two games at the CCAC Tournament.

The Bees fell to Indiana South Bend 7-5 in the first round and then lost to St. Francis 4-3 in an unexpected matchup of the No. 2 and 3 seeds in an elimination game Wednesday.

In a recent trend, nearly every time the Bees scored, they would allow the opponent to score in the next half inning. This plagued SAU in both games in Crown Point, Ind.

St. Ambrose played with the lead for much of the opening game.

Becca Haag put the team in front in the first with a double that scored Shai Erdrich. After the Titans tied the game in the top of the second, the Bees regained the lead on Reagan Engberg's sacrifice fly that plated Taylor Martyn.

IU South Bend struck for a pair of runs in the third to grab a 3-2 lead.

Reagan Engberg came through again in the fourth, doubling with the bases loaded to score Kylee Claypool, Martyn and Mya Millsaps.

That lead lasted only until the next half inning as the Titans tied the game with a pair of runs. IU South Bend took the lead in the sixth and added an insurance run in the seventh.

SAU threatened in the bottom of the seventh with Erdrich leading off with a base hit and Anna Engberg following with a walk, but the next three Bees were retired to end the game.

Erdrich finished with two hits. Martyn and Parker Leonard also collected hits.

Bianca Shorter took the loss in relief of Leah Maro.

Dropped into an elimination game, St. Ambrose faced St. Francis, who was stunned in the first round after coughing up a 3-0 lead in the seventh inning in a 6-5 loss to Trinity Christian.

In a battle of the two teams who tied for second in the CCAC, it was the Bees who got on the board first.

Haag's double scored Anna Engberg in the top of the third and an inning later, Haag drew a walk with the bases loaded to force in Kylee Vaughn.

The Saints came back with two runs to tie the game at 2-2 in the fourth and tallied two more runs in the fifth.

After leaving the potential tying runs on base in the sixth, St. Ambrose looked to rally again in the seventh.

Martyn lined a home run to right to lead off the inning to cut the deficit to a single run. With two outs, pinch hitter Ellie Downing singled. Kylie Schult followed with a hit to move pinch runner Amber Gnutek into scoring position. But that was it as USF escaped the jam to survive another day.

Anna Engberg, Haag and Schult each had two hits in the season finale. Erdrich, Martyn, Millsaps, Downing and Brynnlin Kroymann also had hits.

Shorter was charged with the loss in relief of Maro.

SAU finished the year with a 30-19 record.