BOYERTOWN — Sure, the Northwestern Lehigh softball team is happy and proud to be headed to its third PIAA semifinal game in as many years.

For the team, though, it’s like reaching the third step from the top of a long stairway.

The next step is reaching the finals and playing for what would be its first state championship in 40 years. That’s where this team wants to be.

The Tigers reached their current destination with a 6-4 win over Interboro in the PIAA 4A quarterfinal game played at Boyertown High School’s Bear Stadium on Thursday.

As expected, the Buccaneers (21-3) didn’t go quietly and had fans moving toward the edge of their seats in the final inning, but as she has done so many times before, Emma Freeman stayed calm and ended the game with a pair of routine ground balls to Lizzie Diehl at second base.

Senior Rylee McGinley showed the chaos that good speed and a high softball IQ can cause when she reached on a single in the first.

When Freeman dropped a well-placed bunt to third, McGinley wasn’t happy with just going to second and instead, never broke stride and rounded the bag to go to third. The throw across the diamond from first was wild and McGinley jumped up and scored to make it 1-0.

“That wasn’t designed or anything,” said McGinley. “We just like to come out and be aggressive. I looked at third and nobody was covering, but the left fielder was coming in toward the bag. I thought I could beat her, so I just kept going.”

Junior catcher Abby Dunstan then sent a long, high flyball to left that landed about 10 feet past the fence for her 11th home run of the year for a 2-0 Northwestern lead.

The Bucs put runners on base with two outs in each of the first two innings, and then leadoff hitter Maryanna Nagle drew one of three walks that Freeman issued in the game with one out in the third. From there, the junior pitcher retired six straight and kept Interboro having to work from behind.

Freeman, who reached 500 career strikeouts in the opening-round game against Athens, is more than just a pitcher. She and battery mate Dunstan singled, and freshman Natalie Conner drove them in with a long flyball that landed in left field for a double. A fielding error brought home Conner to make it 5-0 and Northwestern looked to be in good shape.

“I just wanted to contribute to the scoreboard in some way and I had two strikes on me, so I just wanted to make contact and make something happen,” said the freshman shortstop who is now hitting .478 this season.

With a hot sun beating down though, the Buccaneers were about to warm up.

Interboro put a runner on second with two outs in the fifth and Nagle lined a shot into the left center field gap for an RBI double. The leadoff hitter later scored when Summer Burrell followed with a single through the middle to make it 5-2.

The bottom of the Northwestern order got into the act in the sixth when No. 8 hitter Ella Bressi hit a grounder to third and hustled down the line, making third baseman Olivia Bulovas hurry her throw, which got away and put Bressi on second. Lizzie Diehl followed with a double into the left field gap and Northwestern stretched its lead to 6-2.

“We were trying to rally it up again, we had a hot start to the game and in that inning, we were just trying to tack more runs on the board and give us a little bit of breathing room,” said Diehl. “My mental approach was just to come up in swing mode.”

The final inning started in a weird way.

Nagle hit a flyball to center that McGinley came in on and appeared to have caught with a dive forward. Pretty much everyone in the ballpark, including Nagle, thought the ball was caught, but as McGinley rolled, a quick flash of yellow appeared on the ground when the ball came out of the glove.

With Nagle headed back to the dugout, McGinley quickly gathered herself and threw to first, but Nagle had been alerted by players and coaches to head back down the line and reached the bag safely. Umpires conferred on the legality of Nagle’s move back toward the dugout but allowed the play to stand.

A walk, a single, and an error put two more runs on the board and brought the tying run to the plate with a runner on second and one out. Freeman simply got the next two hitters to hit routine ground balls to Diehl at second and end the game.

PENDING INVITATION … Freeman is supposed to be a member of the Carpenter Cup team that will play a pair of exhibitions Wednesday against senior all-star teams at Patriots Park. Should Northwestern reach the finals, that would be played Thursday at Penn State knocking Freeman out of that game and keeping McGinley and Shelby Mitman from competing on the all-star teams. “I already emailed coach (Brian) Fehnel to tell him that I am hoping to be heading to Penn State then, so even though it would be fun, to finish out the season in Happy Valley would be so much better,” said Freeman.

SAME TEAM, DIFFERENT ROUND … Last year, Northwestern beat Valley View in the quarterfinals at Central Columbia to reach the semis. The two teams meet this season in the semis with one of them advancing to the finals. The site and time for that game has not been announced as of yet, but the game will be on Monday.

Interboro 000 020 2 - 4 8 4

Northwestern 203 001 x - 6 9 2

Bergen and Harrity; Freeman and Dunstan. W - Freeman. L - Bergen. HR: Northwestern - Dunstan (1st, none on).

Records: Interboro (21-3); Northwestern (26-2).