ALLENTOWN - It has been a while since the Northwestern softball team played in the Colonial League final four.

So long ago, that head coach Josh Zimmerman couldn't remember the last time.After a 5-2 victory over Salisbury in the league quarterfinals on Saturday, the Tigers got that opportunity on Tuesday against top-seeded Bangor.Two rough innings prevented Northwestern from advancing any further, however, as the Slaters rolled to a 6-0 victory in the nightcap of a semifinal doubleheader at Pates Park.A three-run third inning and a three-run sixth were all the Slaters needed to secure the win."Give Bangor a lot of credit, they earned that win," said Zimmerman. "We didn't give them anything, they just had a lot of key hits. We had some opportunities to score runs, but didn't capitalize, and that's what gets you."But the girls battled all the way until the end. I told them to get to this point, they should be proud of themselves."The Slaters scored their six runs on eight hits, but had six of those hits in the critical third and sixth innings when they tallied all of their runs.Lydia Danner worked through the first two innings unscathed, but in the bottom of the third, five runners reached safely. Bangor took a 3-0 lead when Allison Phillips ripped an RBI double, Dani Fey drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and Ciarrah Holmqvist stayed in a rundown long enough between first and second to allow Nikki Kessler to score.The Tigers had an opportunity to cut into the lead in a big way in the top of the sixth inning. Alyssa Cinquemani reached on an error, then Brooke Wehr and Jess Badman followed with singles to load the bases with one out. But Bangor pitcher Erin Happel got the next two batters to preserve the shutout.Happel struck out five, didn't walk a batter, and worked around three Slater errors.Ally Shook doubled in three runs in the bottom of the sixth to break it open."We have to learn from this," said Zimmerman. "We have to get back to situational hitting, and making our outs productive. We need to get runners on base and in scoring position, and then bring them in consistently."I was worried about the pressure of the big game on our kids, and it looked like they might have been timid."RECORD UPDATE ... Bangor improves to 21-2, while Northwestern falls to 13-9.LEAGUE FINAL ... Bangor will face Catasauqua on Thursday at 5 p.m. at Pates Park for the Colonial League title. The Rough Riders were a 2-1 winner over Palmerton in the opening game of the doubleheader.LOOKING AHEAD ... Northwestern will look to bounce back in the District 11 tournament, which will begin next week.NO TITLE ... The loss means that the Tigers are still searching for their first league title since 2006.N'western 000 000 0 - 0 5 2Bangor 003 003 x - 6 8 3Danner and Wehr; Happel and Caleen. W - Happel. L - Danner.