ALLENTOWN - Northwestern softball coach Josh Zimmerman thought his team would need a near-perfect game to knock off top-seeded Bangor in the Colonial League semifinals.

And for six innings, the Tigers played as close to perfect as he could have asked for. But Bangor still had one last inning to work with.The Slaters rallied from a three-run deficit in the bottom of the seventh inning to complete the comeback, advancing to the Colonial League championship game with an 8-7 victory. Bangor scored four in the seventh, capped by a walk-off RBI single from Hanna England that completed the victory."We put six solid innings of work together," Zimmerman said. "We came in all week saying that when we get here, we have to have our perfect game against Bangor. The bottom line is they are a quality ball club. They always are."England stepped into the batter's box with two outs and Bangor just one run from completing its epic comeback. She wasted no time, lining the first pitch into centerfield to score Dani Fey.The win advanced Bangor to Thursday's championship game against No. 5 seed Salisbury, which upset Southern Lehigh in the first semifinal game on Tuesday, 3-1."We came out ready to hit," Zimmerman said. "We came out a little bit on fire."I don't know if it was complacency or whatever it was in the seventh. We had a couple of errors in some spots that could have meant the difference in the game."Northwestern looked to have Bangor right where it wanted through six innings. A steady dose of offense and three innings of hitless pitching from relief pitcher Cassidy Lentz had an upset brewing.But Bangor would finally find its groove in the seventh inning. Olivia Groller and Sky Gilligan, the eighth and ninth hitters in the batting order, led off the frame with back-to-back singles. Then, leadoff hitter Nikki Kessler walked to load the bases.After a flyout, CiCi Holmquest singled to right field to score Groller and cut Northwestern's lead to 7-5. Fey and Kaitlin Caleen added consecutive RBI singles to tie the game at 7-7. That set up England to play the role of hero."We came in with the strategy saying that small ball is going to be kind of limited," Zimmerman said. "They are going to score their runs. They are a good hitting team. So we came in with the mentality that we have to hit and stay hitting with them."We were able to do that for six innings, but in that seventh, they were able to get a couple more hits than we did."After Akelaitis was pulled in the fourth inning, Lentz retired eight straight batters and did not allow a hit until the seventh inning."She came in and shut them down right away," Zimmerman said. "My heart goes out to her because she went out there and did her job."Northwestern got on the scoreboard first and led 2-1 after the first inning after Akelaitis and Jess Badman recorded RBIs.After the Slaters took their first lead of the game in the fourth inning at 4-3, Northwestern responded immediately in the top of the fifth. Anna Akelaitis's two-run single put the Tigers back in front at 5-4. Then Brooke Wehr scored on a Bangor error in the sixth, and Avery George's RBI single in the seventh scored Anna Akelaitis for a 7-4 lead that would hold only momentarily.REGROUP AND REFOCUS ... Northwestern will have time off before returning back to the field for the District 11 tournament. Dates and times are yet to be determined.WEHR-ING THEM OUT ... Wehr had a big game offensively for the Tigers with two hits and three runs scored.Northwestern 201 021 1 - 7 10 4Bangor 102 100 4 - 8 10 5E. Akelaitis, Lentz (4) and Wehr; Gannon, D. Hess (3), Fey (6) and Caleen. W - Fey. L - Lentz.