Reese Dugan wasn't sure if she was going to pitch yesterday. On Wednesday, the Palmerton junior started against Southern Lehigh, and just two days earlier she did the same against Salisbury.

With the Lady Bombers splitting those two games and the postseason looming, Dugan took the ball once more against Bangor, which sat at the top of the Colonial League standings entering play Thursday.Behind what was arguably her best performance of the week, Palmerton earned a critical 2-1 win over the Lady Slaters, a victory that solidified the team's place near the top of the West Division standings with the league playoffs set to begin a week from today."This was huge," said Lady Bombers' head coach Robert Hock. "We got off to a great start (this season), but we've been stumbling a little bit lately and have maybe lost some confidence."It was starting to look like we were going to back in to the playoffs because we did get off to such a hot start. But a win like this will energize this team again."Dugan certainly did her part to inspire her teammates, not allowing a base runner until the fifth inning when Kailey Smith drew a one-out walk."I found out like five minutes before the game that I was going to start," said Dugan, who struck out seven over seven innings of work. "But I was just so excited because Bangor is such a good team and I knew we had to beat them."Palmerton (12-4, 11-3) gave Dugan an early lead, scoring both of its runs in the second inning on singles by Lauren Campbell and Ashley Lalik, who finished with two hits apiece.But the Lady Bombers had only three hits and didn't have a runner get into scoring position the rest of the way.."I'd like to see our bats heat up again," Hock said of the offense. "That is what propelled us to the strong start that we had. If we can get those bats back in order, I think we'll be all right come postseason time."While Palmerton seemed to struggle at the plate down the stretch, Bangor (12-3) appeared to find its rhythm against Dugan, producing three hits in the seventh inning. After Dani Fey led off with a single, it appeared as if Dugan would be able to work out of trouble when she got Courtney Constable and Kailey Smith to hit into a fielder's choice in back-to-back at bats.But Dugan's counterpart, Erin Happel dropped a perfectly placed single into right field to give Bangor runners at the corners with two outs. Ally Shook delivered a single to bring in Smith and cut Palmerton's lead to 2-1.Ciarrah Holmqvist followed and promptly hit a grounder to Janel Tracy, who made the throw to Ashley Acker to secure the win."Reese threw a really good game, you can't take that away from her," Bangor head coach Rich Kessler said. "But I think we looked at too many good pitches and just got started a little bit too late."With a crucial win in hand, Hock hopes his team is peaking at the right time."I think they can go as far as they want to go," he said. "They are hungry…and they know this is it. Senior night is coming up next week, and that got their attention in a hurry."They've been cohesive as a group thus far, and as long as we maintain that and take care of what needs to be done on the field, we should be in good shape."Bangor 000 000 1 - 1 4 0Palmerton 020 000 X - 2 6 1Happel and Smith; Dugan and Campbell. W - Dugan. L - Happel.