EASTON — Fundamentals: something that often separates good teams from great teams.

Palmerton baseball was faced with this reality on Monday as they battled Southern Lehigh in the Colonial League semifinals. A quick five runs in the first inning saw the Spartans go up early, and they never looked back as they defeated the Blue Bombers 9-2 to advance to the finals.

Coming off a nail-biting quarterfinal victory over Salisbury, Palmerton was looking to extend its nine-game win-streak and get revenge over a Southern Lehigh squad that already defeated the Bombers 6-1 earlier this season.

They faced an early challenge as Cameron Pengelly’s pitching performance in the quarterfinal made him unavailable on the mound for the semis, setting the stage for Brady Reph to take the hill instead.

Reph was greeted with a rude introduction in the first as Southern Lehigh wasted no time playing to their identity: productive at the plate, contact hitting and aggressive base running. All of this was on display as the Spartans strung four hits together (three in the infield) to take an early 5-0 lead.

With this being a shock to their system, Bombers’ head coach Tyler Svetik knew that overcoming this deficit was going to be a very tall order for his club.

“That is a big hole to come down from,” he said. “We felt confident we could come back from a few runs, but when you get down five in the first inning, it limits what you can do.”

Despite the challenge, Palmerton showed no quit as it tallied runs in back-to-back innings courtesy of RBI singles from Greyson Ahner in the second and AJ Borger in the third. Borger also brought some needed relief on the mound through four frames, but not enough to completely keep Southern Lehigh off the board.

The Spartans added a run in the third with a stolen base and sacrifice fly, while also taking advantage of a wild pitch. Little details such as these represent just how important fundamentals are in both producing and preventing runs.

This has been a theme with Southern Lehigh that head coach Todd Miller has emphasized into his team’s performance.

“We did some things right that we didn’t do the other night in our quarterfinal game,” he said referring to their 5-0 win over Notre Dame Green Pond. “We stress fundamentals; we stress execution and the kids really do a good job.”

After adding a run in the fifth, two more in the sixth capped off the 9-2 score. Both runs were manufactured by two stolen bases (the Spartans had eight in total), a wild pitch, and productive at-bats to drive them both in, which once again proves just how important fundamentals are to a ball club’s success.

While the victory was a complete team effort for Southern Lehigh, Logan Kessler stood out going 2-for-4 with three RBIs and a run scored. Its starting pitcher, Chase Woodring, was outstanding on both sides of the ball as he went 2-for-2 with three RBIs while also collecting five strikeouts through six innings of work.

“I can’t give Woody enough credit on the mound; he did a fantastic job,” said coach Miller. “He’s been kind of up and down throughout the course of the year, but the last couple of times out he’s thrown pretty well. For him to get through six was huge for us.”

For Palmerton, its journey through league playoffs may be over, but it wasn’t without a lack of effort as their performance after the first inning was admirable. In the end, Southern Lehigh was just that much better at playing fundamentally sound baseball and paying closer attention to little details that can make all the difference.

“Defensively, I know we played a solid game,” said Svetik. “We’re disappointed because we felt like we were good enough to beat them, but we made a good run and we still have districts to look forward to. So we’re happy about that.”

MATCH SET … Southern Lehigh will face Northwestern Lehigh on Thursday at DeSales University in the Colonial League championship game. The Tigers defeated Saucon Valley 13-3 in their semifinal matchup.

WAIT AND SEE ... Palmerton is currently the second seed in the District 11 Class 3A rankings. If Palisades wins its final game of the season, the Bombers will more than likely face the Pirates in a quarterfinal contest. If Palisades fails to make districts, Palmerton would probably receive a bye into the semifinal round.

Palmerton 011 000 0 - 2 7 1

Southern Lehigh 501 012 x - 9 10 0

Reph, Borger (2), George (6) and Ahner; Woodring and Pryzuski. W - Woodring. L - Reph.

Records: Palmerton (14-7); Southern Lehigh (17-5).