WIND GAP — After watching Northern Lehigh roll past Palmerton in the Bulldogs’ regular-season finale, Pen Argyl’s Bill Schankel didn’t get much rest.

The head coach of the Green Knights feared the offensive explosion that Nolehi produced in that contest.

But in Saturday’s Colonial League quarterfinal contest, a huge first inning and some key plays allowed Pen Argyl to pull away for a 12-2 victory over the Bulldogs — and give their head coach the opportunity to get some shut-eye the rest of the weekend.

“Northern Lehigh’s a nice team,” said Shankel. “I went to their game the other day when they played Palmerton (and scored 13 runs). They played so well, kept me awake all night worrying about them.

“We had that big inning, and then you just feel better. It’s hard sometimes (when you play from behind) because it puts pressure on you, so the fact we bounced back was big.”

The Bulldogs pushed across a run in the first to take an early lead. Marisa Maehrer led off with a walk and ended up on third after a pair of stolen bases. With two outs, Tegan Simms hit a looper in the infield that fell for a hit and brought home Maehrer for a 1-0 advantage.

But the momentum from that tally was short-lived.

Pen Argyl batted around in the home first, receiving two-run hits from both Rylee Wentz and Aubrey Dehart. An error, one of two in the inning, accounted for the other run.

“The first inning was a killer,” said Northern Lehigh head coach Dan Caruso. “We dropped a ball there, and dropped a pop-up. Those things happen, but when you can get out of the inning 1-1 and now it’s 5-1, it hurts.

“And the strike zone was extremely tight. There were pitches I felt were strikes that we would have been out of the inning, but you can’t control that.”

After the Bulldogs put up their first-inning run, Knights pitcher Jill Bradley controlled the Nolehi hitters. as the left-hander allowed just one runner, on an error, to reach base over the next three frames.

“With Jill, when you have a lead you feel good,” said Schankel. “After we scored those runs, though, we didn’t do anything for a couple of innings. I had to remind them that this team (Northern Lehigh) is too good to just let them hang around. I told them we have to continue to score, and finally in the last innings we scored more runs.”

The Bulldogs did cut the gap to 5-2 in the fifth when an error, a stolen base and a single by Emily Gad put runners on first and third. Gad was thrown out trying to steal, but courtesy runner Savannah Kast raced home for Northern Lehigh’s second run.

Pen Argyl responded, though, with a pair in the home half on Dehart’s RBI ground out, and a run-scoring single by Madacyn Rivera to up the gap to 7-2.

The Green Knights then finished things off in the sixth with another five-run inning, getting RBI hits from Ashlyn Oessenick, Talia Curtolo, Dehart and Bradley.

“The last time we played against them it was 3-0, and I felt we could play with them,” said Caruso. “This score is not how we normally play, especially the way we played against Palmerton when we hammered them from the start.

“We settled down for a bit after (the first inning). With Palmerton, we got things going with small ball plays and things like that, but you can’t do that when you don’t get enough runners on base.”

KEY PLAY ... Pen Argyl conceded the Bulldogs’ second run by throwing through to second in hopes of preventing a big inning. “We’ll trade an out for a run there anytime,” said Schankel. “That was the plan and we executed it. The catcher’s a freshman, and she made a great throw there. My pitcher gave a good pitch out and it went just like we diagrammed. They don’t always go like that.”

NINE IS FINE ... The Knights’ No. 9 hitter, Dehart, finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs. “I just gave her the game ball,” said Schankel. “I told her (her performance) was big.”

SMALL ZONE ... The home plate umpire had a small strike zone, a fact that made things tough for NL start Addie Smith. “She threw 40 pitches in the first inning, and that’s a lot,” said Caruso. “That’s a direct result of not getting called strikes. If we have to throw pitches right down the middle of the plate, the players in this league are going to hit the ball.”

UP AHEAD ... Pen Argyl will face Palisades Tuesday in the league semifinals at Pates Park, while the Bulldogs will likely meet Pine Grove in the semis of the District 11 Class 3A playoffs.

Northern Lehigh 100 010 - 2 3 4

Pen Argyl 500 025 - 12 13 2

Smith and Gad; Bradley and Scherer. W - Bradley. L - Smith.

Records: Northern Lehigh (11-10); Pen Argyl (16-5).