ALLENTOWN - "Fight to the finish."

It's what Palmerton head coach Bob Hock expects his softball team to do.And, for the last two games in particular, it's exactly what the second year coach has gotten.In their District 11 Class AA semifinal against Pen Argyl, the Lady Bombers rallied from a 3-1 deficit with four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning for a 5-3 win.In yesterday's final against Notre Dame Green Pond, Palmerton scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth to break a 1-1 tie, and held on for a 3-1 victory to claim the program's first district title since 1989."It's a testament to their resiliency," Hock said of his team. "It wasn't, perhaps, one of our strongest assets early in the season, being able to come from behind. But they learned that you have to play the game until the end, whether you're ahead or not."That's how ball games are won, especially championships, because they just get tighter and tighter and you have to play it for all 21 outs. They battled. We had a little talk before the bottom of the sixth and I told them to put up a number, and if we get three outs (in the seventh) we're out of here. And they responded quite well. I really like what I've been seeing out of them."The second seeded Lady Bombers (17-7) were down to their final out against Notre Dame Green Pond (13-11) starter Samantha Curcio in the bottom of the sixth inning when senior cleanup hitter Janel Tracy started what proved to be the game-winning rally with a single to left field.Lauren Campbell, also a senior, followed with another base hit that moved Tracy to third. Avery Neipert, in as a courtesy runner for Campbell, moved to second on a passed ball to set the stage for Miranda Bellis.The junior delivered with a line drive to left field that was misplayed, allowing Tracy and Neipert to score to put Palmerton ahead 3-1.Tracy was also on the last Lady Bombers' team to advance to a district championship game, a 9-0 loss to Bethlehem Catholic in the 2013 Class AAA final.That postseason experience paid dividends yesterday."It's huge," Hock said of Tracy. "The thought crossed my mind to go have a little talk with her and just let her know that we don't want this to be the last at bat of her high school career."But I just kind of looked in her eyes and she looked at me and I knew I didn't have to tell her anything. She knew what the situation was and she was determined to make it happen."The desire to finish games strong might have started a few weeks ago in the Colonial League tournament, where Palmerton fell to Catasauqua 4-3 in the quarterfinals.But the Lady Bombers got a measure of revenge against the Roughies in the opener of the district tournament with a convincing 7-0 victory, a result that has keyed their recent run of success."I think it says a lot about our character," Tracy said. "After we lost in the league tournament, we knew we had to do something to be able to perform in the postseason. We knew we had to be able to finish the fight."And each game, just little by little each pitch, each inning we just took it one thing at a time. Today, we knew we had to start a rally sometime and we were able to do it."Starting pitcher Reese Dugan put Palmerton in a position to win with seven strong innings, working out of a bases loaded jam on two occasions.The eighth seeded Crusaders left a total of eight runners on base.Despite working with little room for error, Dugan was steadfast in her approach in the circle."I knew it was a big game and I was a little nervous with all the cameras here and stuff," she said. "But I knew my team was behind me and I knew how bad they wanted it, and I just knew we could do it."With a district championship in hand, Palmerton will now prepare for Monday's PIAA tournament game against St. Basil, a 4-3 winner over Christopher Dock in the District 1 Class AA final.