Marian and Pleasant Valley both posted convincing wins in the district semifinal on Friday to reach their respective championship games.

The Fillies routed Shenandoah Valley, while the Bears took down Pottsville.

In another semifinal contest, Northern Lehigh fell to Pine Grove.

SOFTBALL

Marian-Shenandoah Valley

Marian quickly erased an early deficit and cruised to a 13-3 victory over Shenandoah to advance to the District 11 Class 1A title game.

The Blue Devils used three straight hits in the first inning to take a quick 2-0 lead, and added another run later in the frame.

But the Fillies responded with a seven-run outburst in the bottom first to take control.

“It was huge to score those runs right away,” said Marian head coach Lyndsey Reiniehl. “You don’t want to be down three runs in the first inning no matter who you’re playing.”

Gracie Sendatch started the uprising with a triple and scored on a passed ball. Marian also received a two-run single from Deanna Pugh and RBI hits from Danica Karlick and Zoe Katona.

After gaining a lead, Marian hurler Emily Upanavage settled down and didn’t give up a hit the rest of the way.

“She settled down, but it was also raining in that first inning and that didn’t help. She ended up with seven walks and she normally doesn’t walk that many. The rain was definitely not on her side.”

Meanwhile, the Fillie offense continued to pile up runs.

A Shenandoah error in the third allowed one run to score, while Sendatch delivered a two-run hit to make it 10-3. Hailey Treskolasky plated another with a triple.

The winners ended the game in the fifth with a pair of runs. Amelia Degler’s bases-loaded single scored two runs and gave Marian its semifinal win.

“Our catcher (Treskolasky) had a great defensive game today and we received great days at the plate from Gracie Sendatch (2-for-4, two runs, two RBIs) and Zoe Katona (3-for-3, two runs).”

The Fillies will now face Tri-Valley in Tuesday’s championship game.

“We’re extremely happy to be in the championship game. And we were able to play every single girl today and get a win ... Hitting, bunting, looking for walks, playing tight defense will be key against (Tri-Valley). Sometimes we get in trouble with one bad inning, so we need to avoid that.”

Shenandoah 300 00 - 3 4 3

Marian 704 02 - 13 14 0

Monaghan and Labotsky; Upanavage, Birrer (5) and Treskolasky. W - Upanavage. L - Monaghan.

Pottsville-Pleasant Valley

Pleasant Valley is going to play for a district title.

The Bears, behind the pitching and hitting of Kailyn Getz, posted a 9-2 victory over Pottsville in the semifinal round of the District 11 Class 5A playoffs.

PV will take on Southern Lehigh Thursday for the title.

“It’s a great feeling to be able to make it to a district championship game,” said Bears head coach Michelle Albanese. “It makes it more sweet especially being my first year as head coach. I inherited a good group of girls and to be able to take them this far, knowing that they can hopefully win a district title is nice.”

The Bears broke the game open in the second inning, scoring five times to take a 6-0 lead. Maddie Abbatiello walked and eventually scored on a triple off the bat of Allison Borger. After Renee Frable walked and courtesy runner Bella Altemose stole second, Getz singled to right to plate both runners and up the tally to 4-0. A passed ball and error account for the other two runs.

“The girls came out string and came out hard,” said Albanese. “They wanted it just as much as the coaches did. They put the bat on the ball and did what they needed to do.”

The winners tacked on two more runs in the third on a wild pitch and a ground out.

Pottsville spoiled the shutout with a pair of runs in the fourth, but that’s all the Tide could muster off Getz, who allowed just three hits and two walks while striking out two.

“Kailyn has been a rock star for us in the circle,” said Albanese. “She’s pitched almost every game for us ... We definitely leaned on her a lot. It’s nice to be able to rely on her.”

Getz also finished 2-for-4 at the plate with three RBIs, while Abbatiello and Jovie Valenzuela both had a hit and scored two runs.

“We started our season playing (Southern Lehigh) and it was close, we lost 10-9. We definitely are looking to turn the tables the second time around and learn from the first game, and know that we’ve had a whole season to improve. Hopefully we can come out on top.”

Pottsville 000 200 0 - 2 3 1

Pleasant Valley 152 100 x - 9 7 1

Eckert and Wessner; Getz and Frable. W - Getz. L - Eckert.

Northern Lehigh-Pine Grove

A big second inning and a stellar pitching performance from Chelcy Clark allowed Pine Grove to register a 10-0 victory over Northern Lehigh in the semifinal round of the District 11 Class 3A softball playoffs.

Clark gave up just four hits in leading the Cardinals to Wednesday’s title game, where they’ll meet the winner of today’s Pen Argyl-Palisades matchup.

The Pine Grove hurler walked just one and struck out five, and received immediate support in the home first when Callee Leffler led off with a solo homer.

“We just didn’t hit today,” said Northern Lehigh head coach Dan Caruso. “Our game plan was two things, neutralize their speed on the basepaths, which we did. Our catcher, Emily Gad, threw two runners out early and they did not run the rest of the game. The second thing was take away their small ball, and we did that.

“But that team is a good hitting team, and you can’t get away with missing spots ... We had a good gameplan, but there’s just a good hitting team and you can’t take that away from them.”

The winners showed off their hitting prowess by collecting four run-scoring doubles in the big inning to take a commanding 7-0 advantage. Meadow Umbenhauer and Hannah Aungst both had two-run doubles, while Lily Flynn and Madison Shiffer each knocked in a run with two-baggers.

Leffler ended 2-for-3 with three runs and two RBIs, and Aungst went 2-for-4 and knocked in three runs. Flynn, Shiffer and Addison Zimmerman also finished with two hits as Pine Grove collected 13 in the game.

For Northern Lehigh, whose season ended with the loss, Grace Bauer was 2-for-3 at the plate. The Bulldogs’ other hits came from Tegan Simms and Skyelar Horack.

“Our whole thing this season was we couldn’t get hits with runners in scoring position,” said Caruso. “As much as we worked on hitting every day, we just couldn’t break through with that ... All in all, it was a good season. We were 11-11, which doesn’t sound good, but we made such good strides on defense, cutting our errors in half.”

Northern Lehigh 000 000 - 0 4 1

Pine Grove 160 021 - 10 13 0

Smith, Simms (2) and Gad; Clark and Bohr. W - Clark. L - Smith. HR: Pine Grove - Leffler (1st, none on).