If there are two teams that know each other pretty well, it's Marian and Mahanoy Area.

The two Schuylkill League foes met in the quarterfinal round of the District 11 Class A Softball playoffs on Tuesday and for the good part of four innings, it was anyone's game to win.The Fillies (17-4) batted around in the fifth inning, however, and pulled away for a 8-0 victory to advance into Thursday's semifinal round against No. 2 seed Minersville at Blue Mountain at 5 p.m.Marian hurler Becky Shaud actually kept the Fillies in the game with a four-hit shutout that saw her strike out 10, without issuing a walk.We were trying to make adjustments through the whole game," said Marian head coach Joe DeAngelo. "In the fifth inning, we finally made those adjustments, squared some balls up and were able to score some of those runners that reached base."We know what they do, they know what we do, so that basically balances out. Whoever was going to execute better was going to come out on top."The Fillies took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Alex Stroia led off with a single, stole second and third and scored on a wild pitch.Marian added a pair in the fourth inning when Kailtin Kowker led off with a walk and scored on a double off the fence by Mackenzie Joy. Joy went to third on the throw home attempting to get Kowker. Mackenzie then scored on a fielder's choice by Ashton Galasso.In the meantime, Shaud kept the Bears from posing a threat, striking out two in the first, two in the second, two in the third, one in the fourth and one in the fifth."I kept my head in the game," Shaud said afterwards. "My curve ball that usually works wasn't working, so my least favorite pitch was working so I just threw the ball very hard. The high and inside fastball worked well today."In the fifth inning, the first five Fillies to bat reached base on four hits and an error and all eventually scored to break the game open. And then Shaud retired 11 batters in a row during a stretch to keep the Bears silent.Gabby Cann, Lindsay Nemeth, Bryienna Pearson, Shaud and Kaitlin Kowker all swung a hot bat. Shaud's single drove in two runs and Kowker's double also plated two."Coach DeAngelo told us to drive through the ball and I think it helped a lot of us," Kowker noted. "There was this weird spin on the ball so we weren't really getting set. Once we got balanced and drug the ball we started racking up the runs.Kowker finished with a single, double, two RBI and a stolen base to lead the Fillies attack. Besides, Kowker and Joy, Nemeth also had a double.""Bethany kept us ahead when our bats were silent, until we were able to add to that 1-0 lead and get into a little bit of a comfort zone," said DeAngelo. "She's pretty consistent and threw the ball well today."It's the first time in about three years that we got to the semis. That's a tribute to our senior leadership particularly and the entire team for the type of season we've had to this point."And looking at the roster, there is some young talent that DeAngelo hopefully can feed off of this year's success.Mah. Area 000 000 0 - 0 4 2Marian 100 250 x - 8 8 0Bruce, Walinchus (5) and Leshko; Shaud and Nemeth. W - Shaud. L - Bruce.