SALEM, Va. - Alabama-Huntsville may have carried the nation's top ranking Thursday night at the Moyer Sports Complex.

But the Chargers certainly weren't Midwestern State's biggest opponent as the Mustangs fell into the loser's bracket of the NCAA Division II Softball Championship by taking a 3-2 loss.

"I thought we were very loose coming in," MSU coach Brady Tigert said. "I felt like we were a little tentative early and shot ourselves in the foot."

The Mustangs (52-13) must win four consecutive games to earn a berth in Monday morning's national championship game beginning with an elimination showdown with No. 11 Indiana (Pa.) Saturday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. (Central Time).

The opportunistic Chargers (46-5-1) plated the first run of the game as three consecutive batters reached on MSU's All American ace Brittney Tanner.

Alabama-Huntsville's Kathryn Whitlock laced a one-out single to right-center field in the top of the second then Emily Roach leaned in to a pitch before Abby MacKay drilled an RBI single up the middle to give the Chargers the early 1-0 lead.

UAH would manage just one more hit against Tanner - a leadoff single by Kellie Johnson in the third inning - who allowed three runs - one earned - on three hits with 11 strikeouts and one walk in the complete game loss to fall to 30-9.

But Tanner's error in the top of the fifth inning led to a pair of unearned runs for Alabama-Huntsville.

The Chargers constructed a 3-0 edge as the Mustangs were unable to score and stranded seven runners in the early going against UAH starter Whitney Toler as the game was delayed 51 minutes due to lightning in the middle of the fifth inning.

The Mustangs were unable to get to Charger freshman starter Whitney Toler (19-2) early and stranded seven runners over the first four inning before the game was interrupted by a 51-minute lightning delay.

"With (Toler), I thought the ball was just there," Tanner said. "I feel like if we could have come out and jumped on her then I feel like it would have been a completely different ball game."

It was Tanner who finally got to Toler in the sixth inning as she drilled an RBI double to the right-field gap to plate Courtney Bingham who had reached on a leadoff walk. Tanner later came around to score via an illegal pitch and a error to pull the Mustangs within 3-2.

"Brittney was on pitching and hitting," MSU senior Alyson Reynolds said. "She was doing her job with both. We just didn't get the timely hits. We had people on base and just couldn't get that one dagger or one hit to fall through."

UAH's Alex Lewis came on to retire each of the six batters she faced to earn her 15th save of the season.

"We have had a good hitting team all year and seem to come up with timely hits," Tigert said. "We didn't get all that we needed today. Now we have to fight. That's all we can do. Our backs are against the wall."

Alabama-Huntsville moves on to face No. 2 North Georgia - a 9-4 win over Indiana (Pa.) - at 11:30 a.m. on Friday.