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Bombers capture CL softball title

ALLENTOWN - The Palmerton softball team was one of those squads that just sort of hung around throughout the year and finished the regular season with a league record of 10-6, good enough for a fifth seed spot in the Colonial League playoffs.

While much of the attention focused on teams like Northwestern Lehigh, Palisades, and Pen Argyl, the Bombers just went about their business and tuned out all the noise about those other teams.

It took an upset of the top team in the league – Palisades – in the semifinals to finally get people to talk about this young team that was on a roll.

Thursday night at Patriots’ Park in Allentown, the Bombers left with gold around their necks, knocking off Northwestern 7-4 in the league championship game.

“Going into games as the underdog, gives you a little more fuel,” said Megan Matsko of her team’s run through the league tournament. “You want people to not believe in you and you can prove them wrong. That gave us more motivation, and we wanted to show people what we were capable of.”

Tigers’ starting pitcher Emma Freeman was victimized by some defensive errors that made five of the seven runs scored by Palmerton (16-7) unearned.

Of the six errors made by Northwestern (19-3), four came in the second inning, when the Blue Bombers put six runs on the board. Mikayla Pengelly led off the inning with a base hit, and with one out, Cadee Munjone reached on an error, but Freeman came back to get Emily Christopher to ground out. Pengelly, who had stolen second and gone to third on the error, scored.

Looking to minimize the damage, Freeman went after the No. 9 hitter, Madison Green, who hit a hard grounder to short for an infield single to put runners on first and third. Another error and three straight singles led to five more runs.

Northwestern went to Peyton Neumoyer to pitch the third, and she sent the message that the Tigers were not going quietly when she set Palmerton down in order.

In the fourth, Northwestern started chipping away with back-to-back singles from Izzy Akelaitis and Marissa Christman, followed by an RBI single from Abby Dunstan. Freeman, who stayed in the game as the designated player, doubled to left field to bring home two more runs and cut the lead down to three before pitcher Carly Gaffney collected herself and got the final two outs.

The pressure was turned up a notch when Northwestern put another run – and almost a second – on the board in the fifth. With two outs, Rylee McGinley used her speed to beat out a grounder to third and then stole second. Palmerton elected to intentionally walk Akelaitis and pitch to Christman, who promptly doubled to drive in a run. Akelaitis was held at third, but when the throw from the outfield got away, she raced toward the plate. Matsko then fired a strike to catcher Kelsey Balliet, who was waiting at home with the ball to tag out Akelaitis.

A two-out base hit by Green in the sixth was followed by an RBI double from Sydney Frantz to make it 7-4.

Northwestern brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the inning, butwas unable to plate a run. They then had a one-out double by McGinley in the seventh, but Gaffney was able to finish off the game and make Palmerton the Colonial League champions for the first time since 2019.

“We’re out of basketball mode,” laughed Palmerton coach Bob Hock of the change in his team from the start of the season until now. “We have good athletes, and maybe we’re just a warm weather team. When you lose a couple games, you lose a little confidence, but we started playing better softball, and everything fell into place.”

ON A ROLL

... Palmerton lost both regular season meetings to Northwestern, but its confidence from the late season run that saw it go 8-2 over the season’s final 10 games far outweighed any memories of the earlier losses.

“Our energy was really up for this game, and we were super excited,” said Gaffney, who threw a complete game and struck out nine. “We wanted to come out and do something exciting today.”

LOOKING AHEAD

... Palmerton enters districts as the top seed in 3A, while Northwestern will be the second seed in 4A. District play begins next week.

SOLID WORK

... Neumoyer gave the Tigers five innings of effective relief, and was able to pitch around two seventh-inning errors as the Blue Bombers looked to push their lead.

“Peyton did a good job coming into the circle and keeping them at bay for the most part and gave us a shot,” said Northwestern coach Josh Zimmerman. “You have to credit Palmerton, because they played a heck of a game, and Carly pitched very well and they deserve it tonight.”

Palmerton 060 001 0 - 7 12 2

Northwestern 000 310 0 - 4 7 4

Gaffney and Balliet; Freeman, Neumoyer (3) and Toman. W - Gaffney. L - Freeman.

Palmerton softball team members celebrate after beating Northwestern in the Colonial League championship game. NANCY SCHOLZ/SPECIAL TO THE TIMES NEWS
Palmerton catcher Kelsey Balliet puts the tag on Northwestern's Izzy Akelaitis (12). NANCY SCHOLZ/SPECIAL TO THE TIMES NEWS