ALLENTOWN — Change is a constant.

Pleasant Valley and Southern Lehigh were supposed to play Wednesday night for the District 11 5A championship, but had that pushed back to Thursday afternoon.

Then, the game time was moved up an hour without much notice.

Whether it was the changes or something else, the Bears struggled early and were unable to completely catch up as the Spartans — who last won district gold in 2022 — picked up an 8-2 win and a ticket to the PIAA tournament that begins on Monday.

The first four hitters of the game reached base for Southern Lehigh at Patriots Park, and three of them scored. The first run came in when a passed ball brought Isabella Germani home from third. The next two scored on an infield single that bounced off the glove of Jovie Valenzuela, who attempted to make a diving play on the ball but came up just short.

“I don’t think those early runs really changed the game, because we came back,” said Pleasant Valley head coach Michelle Albanese. “Overall our bats didn’t make contact to start and then, when we did make contact, we hit balls right at them, so it was more a matter of the bats just not coming alive today.”

Southern Lehigh’s Delaney Young put the Bears down in order in the first, but ran into trouble in the bottom of the second.

Brianca Pridham led off the inning with a double to right field and Lydia Borger followed with a single to put runners on first and third. Borger stole second and on a ground ball by Maddie Abbatiello, both runners moved up to make it a 3-1 score. Rylan Knapp also reached on an infield single that scored Borger, and suddenly Pleasant Valley was down by just a run.

After that, a pitcher’s duel broke out with Young retiring 10 of the next 11 hitters with only Valenzuela interrupting the streak with a hard ground ball single to left in the third.

Pleasant Valley starter Kailyn Getz also hit her stride and retired 12 of 14 hitters with an error and a two-out single by Brooke Davies to snap the streak.

On the first pitch after her single, Davies attempted to steal second and was thrown out by catcher Renee Frable to end the inning.

“We faced her (Young) early in the season, and we lost 10-9 in the first game of the season,” said Albanese.

“She’s smaller than a lot of pitchers that we saw this season, and I guess our girls just weren’t ready for her, and she rocked it today.”

Southern Lehigh (16-7) scored twice in the sixth inning on a two-out double by Germani, and then added to its lead in the seventh on two doubles and two singles that scored three more runs to make it 8-2.

Knapp led off the Pleasant Valley portion of the seventh with a line drive single to left center field, but two fielder’s choice ground balls left a runner on first with two outs. Young was able to get an infield pop-up for the final out of the game.

Looking back, Albanese — who finished her first season with Pleasant Valley — was happy with the players she inherited and while she would have liked a better outcome in the finals, she was proud of her players for getting the team there.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better season, or a better group of girls. They really put in the time and the work, and they’re the ones who got themselves here,” said Albanese. “The season had its ups and downs, and luckily for us we had more wins than losses and were able to make it to a district final.

PV loses seven seniors from this year’s team that finished the season 13-9.

“Losing those seniors is going to leave us with some changes to make next year,” said Albanese. “We just have to find players who can step into some new roles, and maybe some young players step up.”

SPARTANS NOT DONE … Southern Lehigh will play Springfield Delco (17-8) in the opening round of states on Monday. Springfield is the third-place team from District 1, and defeated Upper Moreland in its district consolation game. The game will be at Southern Lehigh, or somewhere close if their field is not up to PIAA standards for the game.

GOOD GLOVE … Pleasant Valley came up with some impressive defensive plays when it needed them. Knapp made a diving play at shortstop to throw out Isabella Witt at first to open the third inning, and Pridham snagged a line drive out of the air for the second out of the sixth inning. Unfortunately for Pridham, she was robbed of potential extra bases on a big play by center fielder Torey Ritter in the sixth.

So. Lehigh 300 002 3 - 8 11 0

Pleasant Vy. 020 000 0 - 2 7 1

Young and Padden; Getz and Frable. W - Young. L - Getz.

Records: Southern Lehigh (16-7); Pleasant Valley (13-9).