For a while, it looked like Northwestern Lehigh and Lehighton would have to return to the softball diamond on Friday to resume their District 11 AAA softball quarterfinal.

Mother Nature threw a brief curveball at the Tigers and Indians in the middle of the second inning with the score knotted at 1-1.After over a 30-minute interruption, the two teams resumed play and it was Northwestern, who held the upper hand the rest of the way and took a 5-1 victory, ending Lehighton's season.The Tigers, however, will now take on No. 1 seed Bethlehem Catholic in the semifinals at Parkland on Tuesday night at 7 o'clock."We had some clutch hits and we bounced back on a couple of errors we made and we made the plays when it counted," said Northwestern Lehigh head coach Jen Horner. "It didn't cost us any runs."The Tigers' Katie Williams drew a one-out walk in the first inning, moved around to third on singles by Blaise Barron and Brooke Heller and scored on a sacrifice fly to left field by Calie Rehrig for a 1-0 lead.With the wind picking up, the Indians quickly scored the tying run when Julie Evans reached on a bunt single and moved around to score on successive singles from Jena Smith and Emily Kollar.Following the rain delay, it took both teams an inning to get back in gear and it was the Tigers, who took the lead for good with a run in the third.Lauren Horner's leadoff triple followed by an RBI single from Williams gave the Tigers their winning run.The also added insurance runs in the fifth and sixth inning with the top of the order doing the damage again.Horner led off with a single and Williams followed with a double to put runners on second and third with no out. Barron singled home Horner to make it 3-1.In the sixth, Nicole Metzger reached on a one-out single and Horner followed with a triple that rolled out to the centerfield fence to drive her home. Williams then singled home Horner for a 5-1 advantage."Ashley Eden pitched a good game, Katie Williams had great at bats, Blaise Barron and Lauren Horner also had great at bats and that proved the difference," Horner added.Lauren Horner had three hits including two triples, while Williams and Barron each had two hitsSmith and Rehrig had two hits apiece for the Indians."We didn't have the timely hitting like we've been having all year so that hurt alot," said Lehighton head coach Todd Weaver, who saw his team leave nine runners on base. "If we would have been able to get a couple of hits with the runners on base it would have been a lot closer."The last time we (Lehighton) were in districts was 2005, so it's been a long time.I see a lot of upsides to the whole program so I'm just looking to keep it going in the right direction."N'western 101 012 0 - 5 11 2Lehighton 100 000 0 - 1 8 0Eden and Williams; Rehrig and Smith. W - Eden. L - Rehrig.