PARKLAND - Tamaqua played textbook defense during the first 18 outs of Tuesday's game.

However, the Raiders struggled with the final three outs in the District 11 Class AAA baseball semifinal against Palmerton.The Bombers took advantage of the new life that Tamaqua kept granting them and rallied for a 4-3 victory.Palmerton faced a 3-1 deficit heading into its last at-bat, but tallied a trio of runs during a sloppy Raider stretch that saw them committ three errors.The Bombers had just one hit in the seventh-inning rally, but it was a huge one. Toby Sander's single knocked in the go-ahead run."I was so happy, I couldn't believe it," said Sander of his go-ahead base hit. "I saw the runner coming home and I was like 'thank god'. We know what we have and we didn't want to stop here. We needed to keep pushing forward. Our last inning motivation was to swing the bat and not to watch any (pitches). We got caught looking too many times early in the game."It was Tamaqua that perfectly manufactured three runs across the initial three innings of the contest. The Raiders moved runners along and received sacrifice flies from Thad Zuber, Daylon Barron, and Owen Bates respectively.Tamaqua seemed to be in good position, scoring in each inning, until Palmerton went to the bullpen in the fourth inning.The Bombers' Garrett Perschy took the mound and completely changed the course of the game.Perschy was electric. He didn't allow a hit and struck out eight of the 12 batters he faced in relief."I was second-guessing myself," explained Palmerton head coach Mike Svetik. "Zach Buck pitched well, but Garrett (Perschy) was lights out," "But, (if Perschy starts) the game, does he still have 'it' in the fifth and sixth innings? So, it kind of worked out for us."Palmerton had a leadoff runner on base in five separate innings, but had nothing to show for it until the sixth frame. Perschy had enough of being stranded on base. His energy on the mound carried over to the plate, as he led off with a triple and Buck immediately drove him in for the Bombers' first run."I told them all year that they were a special group of kids that can play with anybody, but they need that confidence," said Svetik. "I have all of the confidence in the world in them, but if they don't have it, it's not going to work."In the top of the seventh, two of Palmerton's first three batters reached base on an error. Ian Silfies drew a walk to load the bases with one out as the snowball effect continued. A sacrifice fly from Perschy cut the Tamaqua deficit to 3-2, but produced the second out. Buck then reached base on Tamaqua's third error of the inning as the tying run scored. Finally, Sander's delivered his game-winning chopper that bounced over Eddie Titus at third base to score Silfies."We were due for a nice inning," Perschy said. "We had a lot of runners on and just didn't capitalize. Just to come out in that inning and give it everything we had was great. We left it all on the line in that inning."Tamaqua didn't go down quietly, as Brady Akins led off the bottom of the seventh by reaching on an infield error. The game fittingly ended on Perschy's eighth strikeout with Akins stranded on third and Barron, the potential winning run, on first base."We went flat for a couple of innings when they brought the new pitcher in," explained Tamauqa head coach Jeff Reading. "We put something together in the seventh inning, but where was that early on? We gave ourselves an opportunity at the end, but it's baseball, and it just didn't work out."RAIDER SENIORS … The six Raider seniors - Akins, Bates, Zach Coleman, Matt Minchhoff, Russell Blaker and Shane Osty - suffered a tough defeat in their last game, but they have achieved quite a bit with Reading during their time together, winning a pair of District 11 titles and a Schuylkill League crown."This senior class has been a part of something for four years," said Reading. "It's really tough to watch their high school careers end, because they've been special. I said to them that I wasn't prepared for this, but what they accomplished over these four years is pretty amazing. We came up one game short for those guys to go for a third district title."UP NEXT … No. 7 Palmerton will square off with No. 8 Lehighton on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Parkland to determine a District 11 AAA champ.Palmerton 000 001 3 - 4 8 1Tamaqua 111 000 0 - 3 4 3Buck, Perschy (4) and Mooney; Blaker, Zuber (7) and Rother. W - Perschy. L - Blaker.