Lehigh Valley's run in the Carpenter Cup Softball Tournament ended Wednesday afternoon with a 7-4 loss to Mercer County at FDR Park in Philadelphia.

"We played hard," said Madison Kymer of Pleasant Valley. "We just couldn't get on top of the other pitcher."Lehigh Valley's second day in the double-elimination tournament started off well with a 10-3 victory over Inter-AC. Pitching duties were split between Kendra Pekurny of Palmerton and Maegen Kavanagh of Easton.Pekurny said, "It wasn't my strongest, but it was enough to keep us in there."Alyssa Kotzman of Pleasant Valley had a base hit in Lehigh Valley's victory, but hits were harder to string together in the loss to Mercer County."We couldn't get the hits when we needed them. We didn't hit bad. We just couldn't produce runs," said Pekurny.Kymer drove in one run and Nazareth High School's Toni Anne Hahn had a two-run homer.In the end, Lehigh Valley's record was 2-2 in the tournament, an improvement over last year when Lehigh Valley was knocked out on the first day."We put up more of a fight this year," Pekurny said.For Kymer, the experience was valuable."It was great getting exposure to college coaches and we got to meet all these girls we never would have met," Kymer said. "We got close pretty fast. Our attitudes were the same, and between games, we would sit, and laugh, and have a good time," .Because Kotzman just completed her sophomore year, she will have an opportunity to play on the Lehigh Valley team again next year."This was probably the most fun team I've been on in a long time. I think we were probably more upset that we weren't going to be playing together anymore," said Kotzman. "It was a great experience, we had great coaches and I learned a lot."