EASTON — Sometimes you improve with every win.

That’s the current story of the Palmerton baseball team as they edged out a 3-2 victory over Pen Argyl in the District 11 3A baseball semifinals to advance to the finals.

On Saturday afternoon, Easton High School played host to this semifinal matchup where the No. 2 Blue Bombers faced the sixth-seeded Green Knights, who beat third-seeded Salisbury 8-0 in their quarterfinal game and was looking to avenge a 3-1 loss to Palmerton earlier this season.

It didn’t take long for the Bombers to strike, as Jason Carelli led off the first with a double and came home on an RBI single from Brady Reph for an early 1-0 lead.

Palmerton went to its ace Cameron Pengelly once again, who has proven to be the backbone the squad has needed to keep the opposition clamped down offensively. After coming off a three-hit shutout against Palisades in the quarterfinals, Pengelly went six strong innings against the Knights, allowing just one run on four hits.

Pengelly was countered by Lincoln Kuster, who tossed four frames and held the Bombers to five hits despite not finding out that he was starting until Pen Argyl head coach Chris Eckhart gave him the nod earlier in the day.

“I told him this morning that he was going to start,” Eckhart said. “He didn’t even know, but we trusted in him and we believe that he did his job out there. We asked him to do everything that he did.”

The Bombers got some much-needed insurance in the fourth as Greyson Ahner knocked in Alex Keiper with an RBI double. With Ahner contributing at the bottom of the lineup, Palmerton continues to prove how well-rounded its offense has become, and how effective it’s become knowing they can get contributions from everyone.

“It really, really says a lot about us,” said Ahner. “I feel like we’ve grown as a team. We really struggled at the beginning of the season, especially like me being a younger guy, a sophomore. We just really locked in at practice and took a bigger role in that. We really wanted to win.”

Later in the fourth, the Bombers added another run as Mason Becker was caught in a rundown between second and third, but was able to score on a wild throw.

Eckhart usually takes pride in his team’s defense, but not in this game.

“We’ve been playing great defense, and unfortunately today it let us down a little bit,” he said. “That’s the difference in this game: one team made the plays, one team didn’t.”

To further prove Eckhart’s point, Palmerton — which had been struggling with fundamentals and defense earlier in the season — has shown how much it’s improved game-by-game, including this one, by limiting errors and simply being crisp with its execution.

But, Pen Argyl refused to go down without a fight as it finally scratched a run across the board in the sixth on a fielder’s choice.

It was then up to reliever AJ Borger to close things out for Palmerton in the seventh.

After a leadoff double from Martini, the Bombers conceded a run with two outs and got the final out on a fly ball for the 3-2 final.

With that save, Borger set a Palmerton school record with his sixth of the season.

“We’re playing so well as a team right now, so we just have so much confidence,” said Bombers head coach Tyler Svetik. “Credit to Pen Argyl; they battled; they’re a solid team. You can see why they were here, and they didn’t give in until the very end. But we played a lot of close games, and we feel confident when we’re in a close game that we’re going to win it.

“AJ’s calm and collected. He’s been closing games for us ... and he’s been phenomenal.”

FINAL FIGHT … Palmerton will face Notre Dame-GP today at DeSales University in the District 11 3A championship. Trailing 6-0 after five innings, the fourth-seeded Crusaders scored eight runs in the sixth to upset top-seeded Allentown Central Catholic for a crazy comeback win.

Pen Argyl 000 001 1 - 2 5 2

Palmerton 100 200 x - 3 5 0

Kuster, Vishnesky (5) and Haros; Pengelly, Borger (7) and Ahner. W - Pengelly. L - Kuster.

Records: Pen Argyl (12-10); Palmerton (16-7).