It's not easy to defeat an opponent three straight times during a calendar season.

Marian had no problem with Mahanoy Area in either of its two regular season contests with them, including a 10-0 rout about three weeks ago.Yesterday was a much tighter affair in the District 11 Class A quarterfinal match between these two familiar foes.This time it was the Fillies who trailed late in the game and needed some late inning heroics to advance to the D-11 semifinals and knock off Mahanoy Area, 3-2.Mahanoy's ace Emily Bruce didn't fair well during her previous start against the Fillies, but was rolling on all cylinders yesterday. Bruce struck out ten and held Marian scoreless until the fourth inning when Nicole Salerno tripled to right-center and then scored on a past ball that evened the game at one run apiece."Her performance was excellent," said Mahanoy Area head coach Joe Hullihan. "You can't win all of them, the (Marian) hitters are going to hit some of them and the timing of them was unfortunate for us. This was a remarkable, resilient team. We carried 10 players and only had nine girls start all season long. At the end of the year we came out and gave everything we had. It's a tough one, but I couldn't' be more proud of this team."Mahanoy scored in the top of the fourth frame when Erin Davidson crushed Bethany Shaud's first pitch of the inning to center field for a triple and next scored on a Kelly Walinchus groundball.Although Shaud threw one subpar pitch in the fourth inning, she was brilliant over the duration of the contest. The Marian senior kept the Fillies in position to compete, as she has all yeartossing a complete game, scattering three hits, striking out eight, and walking none."We've come from behind a few times during the second half of the team," explained Marian head coach Joe DeAngelo. "I told the girls that it's a game of mental toughness and resiliencyand that we have to stay the course."Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning, the Fillies bought into DeAngelo's advice of "staying the course" and woke up offensively all at once.Bryianna Pearson led off the sixth frame with a double. Next, Nicole Salerno who previously tripled in the contest smacked a single and ended up on second base and moved Person to third. Fillies' cleanup hitter McKenzie Joy then roped what would be the game winning two-run single to left field and put Marian ahead."Nicole (Salerno) is our leading hitter," said Deangelo. "For not playing since little league baseball she's certainly a welcome addition to the program and we are very happy to have her. They had to stay with it, fortunately we were able to bunch a few hits together and take the lead."Mahanoy was playing its best softball at the right time, winning seven of its last nine games to earn a spot in District 11 action.Hullihan's squad even had the tying run on second base with two outs in the final frame, but couldn't come up with one more clutch hit to extend their season."I told them to be proud," said the Mahanoy coach. "They came out and wanted this more than anything. It's a beautiful thing to leave everything you have out on the field and there is nothing to be a shame of. A couple plays here or there and it's a different outcome. This was one of the most challenging seasons with the weather and a slow start we had. Once we turned it on, we had a successful season."With the win, Marian earned a semifinal match with first-seeded Tri-Valley on Thursday at Blue Mountain, at 7 p.m.Mah. Area 000 101 0 - 2 3 1Marian 000 102 x - 3 6 2E. Bruce and H.Bruce; Shaud and Salerno. W - Shaud. L - E.Bruce.