ORWIGSBURG - In sport, defending a title might be the most difficult challenge, the most taxing and the most mental task to sustain.

Such was the case for the Palmerton softball team on James F. Patton Field at the Blue Mountain High School Thursday afternoon.One win away from capturing their second straight District 11 Class AA title, the Blue Bombers just couldn't pull the trigger on both sides of the diamond. Their defense came unstrung. Their offense couldn't slap together consistency and that doomed a gold medal chance for 2016.Instead, Pine Grove clasped the gold medallion and a berth in next week's PIAA tournament with a 6-0 over the Bombers."We had a big error early on," said Palmerton skipper Bob Hock. "We could have been out of that inning."Hock was reflecting upon the second inning. The Lady Cardinals scored three runs, getting three hits, but a costly error opened the flood gates. "Good teams capitalize on that stuff," Hock said. "Give them credit for what they did and what we didn't do."Pine Grove sent eight batters to the plate, and did all the damage with two outs. Losing pitcher Reese Dugan deserved better. The senior fanned the first batter in the inning before yielding a single to Oliva Lehman. Dugan induced a groundout for the second out of the inning, but Faith Sleva singled home the game's first run. One batter later, the Bombers kicked around the ball and it hurt as another run scored. Pine Grove wrapped up the inning with an RBI single from Katelyn Rittenbaugh."It was good to get on top, and keep it going," said third-year Pine Grove manager Ryan Leffler. "That gave us the confidence we needed. We knew about (Dugan) so we tried to get hitter's counts; make her throw in the zone and stay off her riser."After falling behind 3-0, Palmerton was never the same."Was it our best effort? Maybe not," he said. "We were battling to the end, and that's all you could do in these games."Hock felt his team was on a roll entering the game."We were very confident," he said. "And we were playing our best softball of the year. No reason to think that things would change today."Palmerton managed just three hits. Darion Jacoby broke open a no-hit effort by Lehman with a two-out single in the top of the third. Two innings later Jordan Boyer picked up the first of her two singles, the other in the seventh."We made some adjustments and I thought we hit the ball well," Hock said. "But we just couldn't get them through."(Lehman) threw a nice game, we had a good approach going with the pitches. It wasn't to be."The Cardinals put things out of reach with a three-run fifth. Lehman used her riser and fastball to check down the Bombers' batters. The Cardinals used four singles coupled with an error to score the final three runs of the game.There was one out when Jenna Kaufman, Mackenzie Hassenauer and Caitlyn Becher strung together three straight hits and an error for two runs. When Lehman blooped a single, the final run scored.That last rally was the story in a nutshell for Palmerton Thursday. It came unglued, some of it by design, but not by any one fault. Retaining championships can be rather difficult.WEBGEM … There was tremendous defensive effort by the Bombers especially in the home fourth. Left fielder Kendra Pekurney made a spectacular play on a fly out of bounds. One batter later, Palmerton third baseman Miranda Bellis made a great play on a batted ball by Sleva to rob her of a sure basehit.COUNTING 'EM UP … Dugan tossed 107 pitches, and 79 were strikes. Lehman delivered 96 pitches, 65 for strikes. The winners had nine hits, all singles. Hassenauer and Lehman each had two.COMING FROM NOWHERE … Palmerton was a seven-seed, and battled through the bracket to play for the title. Seven seniors took a last curtain call.Palmerton 000 000 0 - 0 3 2Pine Grove 030 030 x - 6 9 0Dugan and Acker; Lehman and Kopinetz. W - Lehman. L - Dugan.