ALLENTOWN - Bend but don't break. It's what good teams do.

Both Palmerton and Catasauqua bent quite a bit during the Colonial League semifinals on Tuesday at Pates Park.Neither team deserved to get bounced from the tournament after this competitive showing, but it was Catasauqua that made one more play in the ninth inning to oust Palmerton, 2-1.Both starting pitchers went the entire duration of the game and worked out of countless jams.Catasauqua's Alexia Reichl struck out eight, scattered six hits, and walked three. Palmerton's lone run was scored on a wild pitch in the top of the ninth inning."Alexia did a fantastic job," said Catasauqua head coach Robert Thomas. "Palmerton is a strong hitting, quality team. She did a great job moving the ball around the zone, and we're very proud of her."Palmerton's Reese Dugan was equally impressive, as she struck out 10 and worked in and out of trouble consistently."It's just what we expected out of her," said Palmerton head coach Robert Hock. "She works out of jams when they find her, and we were in a few of them. She always seems to dig deeper and find some strikeout pitches. She gets us where we need to be. She's a battler and fighter until the end."Each team missed a big opportunity in the sixth inning and left the bases loaded.With one out in Palmerton's half of the sixth, the Bombers elected to use two consecutive pinch hitters in the heart of their order. Both came up empty, and Catty exited the frame without a blemish on the scoreboard."Credit Catty for playing a great game, they didn't quit either," Hock said. "We just had to remind them that we're not done yet. We'll hopefully regroup from this, and then it's on to districts where we did some damage last year. Hopefully, we can repeat that."It looked as if Catty would end the game in the eighth inning. Shannon Gallagher smacked a double that bounced off the top of the left-center field fence and was just out of the reach of a lunging Paige Frantz, who went crashing into the wall."I wish it would have been," said Thomas, who thought Gallagher's shot was gone. "It would have made things a lot easier."Instead, Gallagher was on third base with one out. Dani Pluchinsky attempted to suicide squeeze her home. As Gallagher slid home headfirst, Pluchinsky's bunt was fielded by Dugan, who flipped the ball home to Alyssa Acker in one fluid motion. Acker applied the tag, which extended the game and gave Palmerton life."We knew we were capable of (a game like) this, we are playing our best softball now," Hock said. "There is no better time to be playing our best. They got down a cheap run there that we put on the board, but they came right back and answered. That's what good teams do. We'll be back, but I am proud of this team. We had some early season troubles, but we have come together and are playing well.Palmerton added its aforementioned ninth-inning run to go-ahead, but Catty manufactured one better in the bottom of the ninth. Dugan had difficulty working out of the final jam she faced. Her defense made two errors and Catty had timely hitting.Emma Bellesfield led off with a double and was driven in by Hannah Edwards, who reached on one of the Bombers' errors. The final Roughie runner crossed the plate as Olivia Schlofer's ground ball trickled under the glove of Palmerton's third baseman and into left field.SMALL NUMBERS, BIG HEART … "My favorite thing about this team is that a week before the season, we only had eight girls," said Thomas. "Somehow, they've come together to put a wonderful season together."MAKE THE MOST OF IT … Lindsey Shimko didn't hit or field, but she ran and made the best of her opportunity. She was the speedy Bomber who courtesy-ran on first base in the top of the ninth, and moved all the way around to finally score on Catty's wild pitch.Palmerton 000 000 001 - 1 6 3Catasauqua 000 000 002 - 2 6 2Dugan and Acker; Reichl and Bellesfield. W - Reichl. L - Dugan.