ALLENTOWN — A little adversity can be a good thing.

As long as it doesn’t come in the finals of the Colonial League playoffs.

That’s what happened to Northwestern Lehigh Thursday night at Patriots Park in Allentown.

The team that posted a 17-0 record in Colonial League games during the regular season played a rematch of last year’s finals against Palisades and came out on the wrong end of a pitcher’s duel with a 2-1 loss to the Pirates.

Northwestern’s Emma Freeman and Palisades’ Karlye Teman squared off in a meeting of two of the best pitchers in the league, and in fact, the entire area.

For Freeman, a rude awakening greeted her when leadoff hitter Catie Russo led off the game and took a 2-1 pitch out to right center field for a quick 1-0 lead.

In the end, it wouldn’t be the long ball, but a series of bunts that pushed across what would be the winning run for Palisades.

After Russo’s home run, Freeman didn’t allow another hit until Brooklynn Lucas led off the sixth inning with a swinging-bunt single.

A passed ball moved Lucas to second before Jordyn Bonelli deposited a sacrifice bunt just a foot in front of home plate to move Lucas to third.

Pirates coach Rich Wilmott figured if it worked once, why not try it again, so Kelleher put a bunt toward third and gave third baseman Sam Boyer just one play to make as Lucas came home to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead.

Teman, a senior, didn’t allow a hit until the sixth inning when Rylee McGinley led off with a double down the third base line.

McGinley used her speed to plate the lone run of the game for the Tigers when she stole third, and quickly got back on her feet and motored toward the plate when the throw from catcher Fiona Kelleher went down the third base line just about where her double went.

McGinley scored ahead of the throw home to cut the Palisades lead to 2-1.

“I think she (Teman) threw a lot more changeups against us than what she normally does. The first time we faced her I could probably count on one hand how many times she threw that,” said Northwestern head coach Kate Farber.

“You could tell right away that was definitely a weapon that she has either been keeping a secret, or refined since the last time we played them.”

Northwestern’s second hit came with one out in the seventh when Ainsley Behler lined a single through the middle. Behler was bunted to second by Boyer, but Teman was able to get her ninth strikeout for the final out of the game.

The Northwestern offense that hit .371 in the regular season hit just .206 in its three Colonial League playoff games. Its average of 10.4 runs per game has dipped to just six runs in three playoff games.

Much of that can be attributed to facing good teams and strong pitching, but it’s a trend that Northwestern would like to reverse.

“Last year we took some lumps to get to this game, and I think that fueled our fire when we got here. This year, with all due respect, we didn’t, we have pretty much been on top since we played Nazareth, which was a long time ago,” said Farber.

“I don’t want to say that maybe this needed to happen, but everything happens for a reason. I have complete faith in them that this is going to send them on a trajectory upwards.”

REVERSAL OF FORTUNES … Northwestern was looking to repeat as league champions, and played in its fifth straight Colonial League final. For Palisades, the championship is its first since 2009.

STILL NUMBER 1 … For the District 11 playoffs, which begin next week, league champions are automatically seeded No. 1. None of the Schuylkill League teams in the 4A classification will be league champions and Palisades is in 3A, so Northwestern will remain on top of the power rankings that determine seeding for districts. The official seedings and matchups will be announced on Sunday.

Palisades 100 001 0 - 2 2 1

N’western 000 001 0 - 1 2 2

Teman and Kelleher; Freeman and Dunstan. W - Teman. L - Freeman. HR: Palisades - Russo (1st, none on).

Records: Palisades (20-3); Northwestern (21-2).