For whatever reason, Palmerton’s Justin Petersen had a good feeling.

As it turns out, his instincts were right.

Petersen, filling in for head baseball coach Tyler Svetik (who was unavailable for Tuesday’s District 11 Class 3A quarterfinal game against Salisbury), didn’t seem bothered by the fact the Blue Bombers were down to their final at-bats trailing by three runs.

Instead, he trusted in his players - and they came through.

Garrett Horvath delivered a key two-run single to pull Palmerton within a run, while Trey Sterling hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game. One batter later, Daniel Lucykanish lined a single to left to chase home the winning run and give the Bombers a thrilling 8-7 comeback victory over the Falcons.

The win lifts Palmerton into Saturday’s semifinal game against Palisades.

“I don’t know what it was; it was just a calm going into that inning,” said Petersen. “Whether I should have or shouldn’t have ... I just had faith in our guys. We had a good group coming up, in terms of our lineup with (No. 3 hitter) Cole (Serfass) leading off, and once he got on it kind of just kept going.

“The kids executed everything we wanted them to do in that inning, and throughout the game for the most part. So, I’m just happy for them. They played their butts off and they deserved to win.”

Trailing 7-4, Serfass started the rally with a grounder to deep short that he beat out for an infield single. Kaleb Eitner followed with a walk. After a fly out, Chase Reph sent another ball into the shortstop hole that the Falcons couldn’t turn into an out to load the bases.

Horvath then ripped a pitch past Salisbury’s first baseman that plated two runs and sent the tying run in Reph to third. Pinch-runner Ty Sander swiped second to put the winning run in scoring position before a grounder to a drawn-in infield was misplayed to re-load the bases.

Sterling lofted a fly near the line in right, which allowed Reph to race home to make it 7-7, before Lucykanish connected on an 0-1 pitch to give Petersen a memorable moment in his debut in charge.

“This is my first game as a head varsity coach,” said Petersen. “This is my 10th season coaching. I was a JV coach for the first five, and I’ve been the varsity assistant the last five. The kids made it interesting. I was just along for the ride.”

The ride was pretty much a roller coaster all afternoon as the two clubs took turns putting runs on the board.

Palmerton got the early jump on Falcons ace Tim Schware in the second, taking a 2-0 lead on Reph’s fielder’s choice RBI and a bases-loaded walk to Lucykanish. But Salisbury bounced right back in the top of third on a two-run single off the bat of Matt Nunez.

The Bombers regained the advantage in the bottom of the inning when Serfass scored all the way from second as Salisbury was trying to turn a double play. However, the Falcons went ahead 5-3 on Hunter Rothrock’s swinging bunt, and a two-run hit by Lucas Graver in the fourth.

“We went down early, but we responded well,” said Salisbury head coach Justin Aungst. “We continued to put runs on the board, but a couple of things went their way in the seventh with some softly hit balls and it is what it is.”

Palmerton (14-8) tallied another run in the home fourth on Lukas Netznik’s run-scoring single, and managed to run Schware’s pitch count to the limit in the sixth - forcing him off the mound.

“We saw him twice already this year, and he threw well against us both times,” said Petersen of Schware, who finished with nine strikeouts. “We knew he was going to throw strikes, especially early in the counts to get ahead. We wanted to be aggressive, but also be smart in terms of our aggressiveness, not helping him out in any way but putting the barrel on the ball.”

Schware seemed to give the Falcons (9-12) plenty of insurance with a two-run hit in the sixth, but Palmerton had other ideas.

“We had guys on base almost every inning,” said Petersen. “That’s exciting, it makes it more interesting. It was fun. It was a great game. Everybody got to watch a good game here.”

WHO’S ON THE MOUND? ... Palmerton used four pitchers in the game. Connor Beahm started, but wasn’t feeling well and lasted just 2 1/3 innings. Reph relieved for 1 2/3, while Horvath also tossed 1 2/3. Netznik went the final 1 1/3 to earn the victory.

HITTING STARS ... Serfass had two hits, as did Nate Steinmetz - who pinch-hit in the fourth and stayed in the game. Rothrock had three hits for Salisbury.

UP AHEAD ... The Palmerton-Palisades semifinal is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. at Saucon Valley.

Salisbury 002 302 0 - 7 10 2

Palmerton 021 100 4 - 8 10 1

Schware, Lovelidge (6) and Tocci; Beahm, Reph (3), Horvath (5), Netznik (6) and Serfass. W - Netznik. L - Lovelidge.