The Misericordia University baseball team will play for the Freedom Conference championship tomorrow after the Cougars held off FDU-Florham 5-4 in a thrilling playoff contest.

MU's Pete Doggett came in and threw 3.1 gutsy shutout innings of relief to earn the save, while closer Matthew Karabin (2-2) made his first career start, earning the win.

Sophomore Kenny Durling was 3-for-4 with three RBIs, two doubles and a home run in the victory. Freshman Joe Tagliarini was 1-for-3.

Brandan Adams led the Devils offense, going 3-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored. Matt Joiner (2-for-4, RBI) and John Pieper (2-for-4, run) also contributed.

In the bottom of the ninth, Doggett got Joiner to ground to first base for the first out. Ryan Fandel then very nearly tied the game with a home run but his shot missed the right field foul pole by a few feet. On the next pitch, Nate Newman somehow snatched his grounder at full extension and got up in time to throw to first. The outstanding defensive play put MU one out away, and a forceout at second ended it.

FDU had also loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh but Tagliarini held a hard grounder for the unassisted putout to get out of the inning and protect the slender one-run lead.

The teams traded runs early, with neither team going ahead by more than one run until MU briefly held a 5-3 advantage.

Misericordia loaded the bases in the top of the first but FDU starter FJ Luchetti got a called third strike to escape the early jam. Joiner singled in Adams in the bottom of the frame to give FDU first blood.

In the top of the third, Durling smashed his third homer of the playoffs- a deep shot to left-center that scored Andrew Tressa.

It was FDU-Florham's turn to answer, and the Devils tied it at 2-2 on an RBI single by Fandel in bottom of the third. Despite stranding the bases loaded, FDU would go ahead in the next inning on Adams' RBI hit.

In the top of the fifth, Durling doubled in Tressa for a 4-3 Misericordia lead after Ryan Cacchioli had come around to tie. Cacchioli then singled in Jeff Slanovec in the sixth, but FDU and reliever Mike Winters (4 IP, 0 runs) escaped a huge bases loaded, no-out jam to stay within two runs.

FDU-Florham's Steve Seminerio smashed a home run well over the left field wall in the bottom of the sixth to pull his team to within a run at 5-4.

Misericordia (26-14) and FDU-Florham (22-13) will meet tomorrow at 7:30 PM for the Freedom Conference championship and a spot in the NCAA D-III Tournament.