ORWIGSBURG - Palmerton’s Cadee Munjone understood the importance of an early lead.

She then got a little extra motivation to help provide it.

Manjone ripped a two-run, first-inning single after Kelsey Balliet had been intentionally walked in front of her. The hit helped ignite a Palmerton offense that had struggled in recent weeks.

The Bombers were able to gradually build on that early lead and went on to post a 7-4 victory over Pine Grove in the semifinals of the District 11 Class 3A softball tournament on Thursday at Blue Mountain High School.

The victory sends Palmerton into the District 11 championship game on Wednesday at 4 p.m. at Pates Park. It also guarantees the Bombers a berth in the PIAA State Tournament for the second consecutive season.

“I was a little nervous when I went up to bat because I knew how big it would be for us to get out to an early lead,” Munjone said. “But I just told myself to relax and concentrate. We work all the time in practice on taking the outside pitch to right field, and that’s what I was able to do.

“I was really happy to come through in that situation, especially after they intentionally walked Kelsey to pitch to me. Anytime that happens, I think it provides a little extra motivation. I wanted to show them that I can hit the ball too.”

Munjone’s hit was one of several clutch deliveries by the Bombers, who pounded out 13 hits in the game.

“We were a good hitting team for most of the season,” said Palmerton coach Bob Hock. “But that seemed to leave us late in the season. We’ve struggled to score the last few games.

“Fortunately, we seemed to find our bats again today - and it came at a perfect time. We work on hitting a lot - excessively at times. The last few practices, we’ve been working on a bunch of little things with a number of our girls and it seemed to pay off today. We swung the bats better than we have in a long time.”

Palmerton (15-8) had scored a total of just four runs in its previous four games. But against the Cardinals, it scored runs in each of its first four at-bats.

In the first, singles by Mikayla Pengelly and Sydney Frantz, and the one-out intentional walk to Balliet preceded Munjone’s line drive to right field.

In the second, the Bombers added two more runs as Emily Christopher and Pengelly singled, and Frantz drove home both runners with a drive over the center fielders’ head that made it 4-1.

The third inning produced two more Palmerton runs as Alyssa Silliman delivered a bases-loaded double off the top of the fence in left-center field.

Pamerton’s final run came in the fourth when Carley Gaffney doubled and Balliet singled her home to make it 7-3.

“We had a lot of big hits with two strikes on us,” said Hock. “I was really happy with how our girls approached their at bats, and how they battled. Pine Grove has a good pitcher, but we didn’t give an inch, and we hit the ball hard most of the game.”

Pine Grove (16-6) added a run in the fifth to pull to within 7-4, but Gaffney was always in control on the mound, retiring eight of the final nine batters she faced and never letting the Cardinals string together more than one hit in any inning the entire game.

“It’s exciting to be back in the district championship game, and it’s nice to be going back to states,” said Hock. “I always felt like this team had the potential to make another run, but I have to admit to having some reservations because of the way we were playing the last couple weeks.

“But I’m proud of the resiliency of this team. Sometimes, it’s tough to stay confident when you’re struggling, but these girls believed they could do, it and now they have a chance to defend our district championship.”

EVERYBODY HITS ... All nine batters in Palmerton’s lineup had at least one hit. Pengelly, Frantz, Balliet and Matsko all had two hits.

WEB GEM ... Bomber shortstop Frantz made an incredible diving snag of a low line drive headed up the middle to rob Addison Zimmerman of a hit in the fourth inning.

RETURN TO FORM... Hock made reference to Palmerton being “a good hitting team most of the season” and the numbers bear that out. Through their first 18 games, the Bombers scored nine or more runs seven times, and were held to less than two runs just once. But in the previous four games, they were shut out twice, and another time scored just one run.

LATE START ... Yesterday’s game was scheduled to start at 5 p.m., but a lengthy opening game between Palisades and North Schuylkill pushed the first pitch back to 5:50 p.m.

Palmerton 222 100 0 - 7 13 2

Pine Grove 102 010 0 - 4 5 1

Gaffney and Balliet; Wolfe and Dorson. W-Gaffney. L-Wolfe.