ALLENTOWN — One of the problems with sports today is that it has become too analytical.

There are charts and numbers, and computer printouts that tell coaches what button to press and when.

That’s part of the beauty of high school sports. Coaches have to coach. They have to use instinct and sometimes, a bunch of trust.

That’s what Kate Farber and her staff had to do Tuesday night at Patriots’ Park in Allentown.

Northwestern and Southern Lehigh squared off in the Colonial League semifinals and Farber listened to her pitcher. In the process, Farber used good, old-fashioned coaching to help produce a 4-1 win that gives her seniors four trips to the league finals in four seasons.

One of those seniors, Lizzie Diehl, got the start and ran into some issues when she lost some of her command and got hit hard by Spartans hitters.

“Honestly, we were close (to replacing Diehl),” said Farber. “Southern Lehigh is a really good hitting team, so we kind of had a feeling that they were going to start to square the ball up a little bit better. We had two separate conversations with Lizzie and we got to a point where we thought we should go to a different look, but I put the ball in her hand so to speak and she said ‘I want to try, give me a shot.’

“She earned every bit of that, so we gave her the nod.”

Through the first five innings, Diehl allowed two hits and two walks and struck out eight and the Tigers held a 3-0 lead. Her ninth strikeout opened the sixth inning, and a pair of singles put runners on first and second.

A walk loaded the bases, and a second walk forced home a Southern Lehigh run. That’s when senior catcher Abby Dunstan went to the circle for a one-on-one with her classmate.

“She just kind of distracted me. It was more so like ‘Hey, don’t think about it, just take things light.’ When you’re tense and in that situation, you’re all focused up and that’s when things tend to go awry,” said Diehl of the conversation with Dunstan.

“She did a great job just to come out, calm me down, and turn the nerves off.”

The result were two straight strikeouts to leave the bases loaded.

Northwestern added a run and Diehl headed for the circle in the seventh. She recorded the first two outs quickly, and then Lily Kelly put a bit of a bump in the inning when she doubled to left center.

Diehl wanted to finish, and Farber gave her the chance.

Cleanup hitter Demi Lewis, ironically, hit a ground ball to second where Emma Freeman, who might have been the choice to come on in relief, was stationed. The senior calmly played the ball, tossed to Molly Schlofer, and the celebration began.

Northwestern’s first two hitters went down to start the game before Natalie Conner kept the inning going with an infield single.

Dunstan then stepped to the plate and hammered an 0-1 pitch over the left field fence for a quick 2-0 lead.

The game stayed at 2-0 until the bottom of the fourth when Schlofer led off the inning with a double to left. Sam Boyer dropped a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Schlofer to third, and Lily Kinnon grounded a ball through the middle to make it 3-0.

A walk to Boyer, an error, and an RBI single by Freeman added more insurance after the Spartans had put up their run, giving Northwestern a 4-1 lead after six innings.

“Everybody contributed in this game. As seniors, we came in with a lot of confidence because we have been here so many times, and we knew that we could get it done,” said Kinnon. “We just had to string those hits together and make things happen on defense.”

Earlier, Palmerton defeated Notre Dame in the other semifinal game. That leaves the Blue Bombers and Tigers to play their third game of the season Thursday night back at Pate’s Park. Northwestern won both of the regular season meetings.

“I honestly feel like they are one of our toughest rivals. I feel like this is the game to really prove that we can do it again,” said Bressi. “I feel like whichever team puts in the work is going to win it at the end of the day, and that’s going to be us.”

23 IN TWO ... Diehl struck out 11 Southern Lehigh hitters in the game, eight of them on a swing and miss. She has started both games of the league playoffs, and has recorded 23 total strikeouts. She surpassed the 100-strikeout mark in the quarterfinal win over Salisbury. Along with Freeman and lefty Ainsley Behler, Northwestern has three pitchers with different looks and different velocities that they can throw at any point.

Southern Lehigh 000 001 0 - 1 5 1

Northwestern 200 101 x - 4 8 1

Young, Detwiler (5) and Hughes; L. Diehl and Dunstan. W - Diehl. L - Young. HR: Dunstan (1st, one on).

Records: Southern Lehigh (15-7); Northwestern (19-3).