EAST LANSING >> Algonac just kept knocking at the door, but it’s still closed … for now.

Making their second trip in four seasons to East Lansing for the softball final four, the Muskrats fell behind No. 6 Grass Lake in the middle innings of Friday’s Division 3 semifinal, but kept knocking on the door until the end, their seventh inning rally ending with the potential tying runs on base.

Both teams were looking for their first finals appearance, but Grass Lake will be moving on to Saturday’s title game after sealing the 4-2 win with a strikeout and a pop-out to second base to kill Algonac’s comeback attempt.

“I feel like that’s kind of how our season’s been going. We’ve been coming from behind, and we had our top of our lineup coming up. So, you know, I think there’s a lot of positive things going there,” said third-year Algonac coach Natalie Heim, ‘and like I told someone, at the end of the day, someone has to lose. So unfortunately, it was us.”

Grass Lake (39-4) will play No. 1 Clare or No. 4 Ravenna in Saturday’s final 5:30 p.m.

The Muskrats ((24-15-1) jumped on top in the first inning, as leadoff hitter Michael Keel was plunked, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, and scored on Ava Murray’s RBI single that dropped into the outfield, along the third-base line.

But Grass Lake took the lead in the third, on a two-run double to the right-center field gap by Nadene Hubbard, then padded the lead to 3-1 on Bree Salts’ RBI bloop single into shallow center in the fourth.

An error extended Grass Lake’s sixth inning, and the Warriors made Algonac pay, tacking on run on Leilah Smith’s RBI single.

But Algonac kept the Warriors from breaking any inning open with solid defense the rest of the way, best exemplified by getting a lineout double play to end Grass Lake’s fourth-inning rally, .

“All year, our defense has gotten better and better, and I think that’s helped our pitcher gain confidence, too, because they know that they have her back,” Heim said. “So I think just overall, we were playing as a team, and we win as a team, and we lose as a team.”

The Muskrats had one last gasp left in the seventh, when Autumn Duewecke led off with a double to the left-center gap, moved to third on a groundout, and scored on a wild pitch, cutting the deficit to 4-2. Aubree Thomas walked, and Kenel reached on a fielder’s choice, when the Warriors tried to nab the lead runner at second.

But Grass Lake pitcher Morgan Conrad got a strikeout and a pop out to end it.

Algonac finishes a run that’s included 84 wins over the last three seasons, a trip to the semis in 2022, and quarterfinals each of the last two seasons, before getting through the roadblock presented by the powerhouse Millington program — the same one that sent the Muskrats home in their ’22 semifinal appearance — in this year’s quarters to make it back again.

“I think it’s really put Algonac on the map the last couple years. And I think people are starting to realize that we do have a lot of special players and talent, and the girls have been putting in the work in the offseason, and I think that just rolls over year after year,” Heim said. “So I’m really excited. I think it’s going to help us, you know, being such a small school, it’s going to help us to get more softball players and going at Algonac. So it’s good to see.”