MERTZTOWN - History sometimes repeats itself.

Unfortunately for the Northwestern softball team, that isn’t always a good thing.

That’s what happened at Lyons Field Monday night when Blue Mountain downed the Tigers for the fourth time in two seasons - posting a 5-3 victory to advance to the PIAA Class 4A finals against Elizabeth Forward High School.

In each of the past two seasons, Blue Mountain has defeated Northwestern in both the District 11 finals and then in the PIAA semifinals.

The Eagles’ Marla Freiwald matched up with Northwestern’s Emma Freeman in the circle and also battled Tiger catcher Abby Dunstan at the plate. Freiwald and Freeman have locked up in the big games between the two teams before, and offensively Freiwald and Dunstan have the biggest bats in their respective lineups.

Last night, the offensive fireworks were limited by the two hitters being intentionally walked a total of five times. The freebies started because of a first-inning spot where Tigers’ coach Kate Farber elected not to walk Freiwald and the senior pitcher blasted a two-run home run to left center field to give Blue Mountain a 2-0 lead.

Freiwald retired Northwestern in order in the bottom of the first and faced Dunstan to leadoff the second and the rising junior launched an even longer home run to left center to make it a 2-1 game. Dunstan’s home run appeared to hit the bottom of the permanent fencing that is 265 feet away - approximately 35 feet past a temporary fencing that is used for high school softball. It was her third of the postseason and seventh overall this season.

An inning later, Northwestern used some small ball to tie the game as Ella Bressi led off with a bunt single and stole second. One out later, Sage Toman looked to move Bressi to third with a bunt and slapped it past Freiwald, allowing Bressi to score all the way from second on what would be an infield single. Dunstan came up with a runner on second and two outs and Eagles coach Mike Roman elected to intentionally walk her, and Freiwald worked out of the jam.

Northwestern fielders committed four errors in the game, but they also came up with big plays when they needed them. A pair of errors in the third put runners on first and second for Blue Mountain and this time Farber elected to walk Freiwald to load the bases with one out. Freeman got Olivia Labe to bounce back to her to start a 1-2-3 double-play that ended the inning.

In the fourth, Blue Mountain had runners on second and third with one out and Anna Borden grounded a ball to short where it was fielded by a charging Akelaitis, who threw home to nail a runner at the plate. A diving stop and throw by Sage Toman on the next play got the Tigers out of the jam.

“It’s tough when you look at the board and see all of those errors for us and none for Blue Mountain and you know that at the end of the day you can’t beat a team like them with five errors,” said Farber. “But we also came up big in so many other ways. Otherwise, they could have just continued to roll, and this could have been a catastrophic score.” .

Freeman retired the first two hitters in the fifth, but Farber again showed respect to Freiwald and put her on base with an intentional walk. Labe followed with a single to left and Lindsay Gibson made Farber regret the two-out walk when she tripled to right field to give Blue Mountain a 4-2 lead.

“We knew that if we were going to put her on, it was going to be a tit-for-tat kind of thing and it’s out of respect,” said Farber. “I know the fans don’t like it and the coaches don’t like it, but it’s a respect thing. You saw what happened when we pitched to her, and you saw what happened when they pitched to Abby.”

In the bottom of the fifth, Bressi reached on a single to left and went to third when Rylee McGinley reached on a bunt single. Akelaitis then lifted a long flyball to left that brought in Bressi to make it a 4-3 game.

Blue Mountain added an unearned insurance run in the top of the seventh.

Bressi led off the bottom of the inning with a bloop single to center, but Northwestern couldn’t generate a rally as Freiwald closed out the victory.

“From day one our motto has been ‘relentless’ and we came in today saying it was time to ‘empty the tank.’ If you can walk away from here knowing that you gave everything mentally, physically, spiritually, whatever it is that you apply to the game of softball, that’s what matters most,” said Farber.

MEMORIES … Monday was the 10th anniversary of a game at Lyons Ballfield between Lower Dauphin and Parkland. Dauphin trailed by seven runs but came back to win 8-7. It was also a state semifinal game. Farber was an assistant coach on the Lower Dauphin staff. Unfortunately, there was no comeback this time around.

Blue Mountain 200 020 1 – 5 8 0

Northwestern 011 010 0 – 3 8 4

Freiwald and Cavadini; Freeman and Dunstan. W-Freiwald. L-Freeman. HR: Blue Mountain - Freiwald (1st, one on). Northwestern: Dunstan (1st, none on)