This is the point in the season where Lydia Danner says she's usually wearing down. That's not the case this year and Danner showed it by throwing a complete game and picking up a hit, a walk and a run scored in Northwestern's 5-2 win over Blue Mountain in the District 11 Class AAA playoffs. The win puts the Lady Tigers into the semifinals against top-seeded Southern Lehigh.

"The last couple of years, I was overused and my arm was getting weaker, but I feel like I've gotten a lot stronger over the last year and my arm feels good," said Danner.Danner allowed a couple runners in the top of the first and then went to work offensively in the bottom of the inning, drawing a walk to leadoff the game. A stolen base put her on second and when the ball bounded away from shortstop Emily Renninger, Danner sprinted into third. Brooke Wehr grounded to short and Danner came home unchallenged with the first run of the game."I wouldn't say it was important for my pitching, but I feel like getting that run helped our confidence and we just needed to stay focused, like we were. Like coach was saying, there's a difference between being loose and being goofy; we were loose and focused, which is good," said Danner with a big smile.As Danner held Blue Mountain to two hits through the first six innings, Northwestern played a little small ball to keep tacking on runs. A three-run fourth inning started with Wehr walking, stealing second and moving to third on a groundball. It looked like she might be stranded there, but Avery George singled to drive her in and a walk to Claire O'Dea put runners on first and second. Ellen Marie Smith singled to center and when the ball popped out of Jordan Skoff's glove, O'Dea followed George to the plate to put Northwestern up 4-0. A walk by Morgan Billig, followed by a bunt single by Danner and another bunt single coupled with an errant throw on the play at first plated Northwestern's final run."We were pretty fortunate, because more innings than not we were able to get the leadoff runner on and when that happens, it allows you to do a little bit more as far as small ball goes. We had a couple of steals here and there and were able to move girls up with bunts and we were able to manufacture a couple of runs, so we were fortunate in that aspect," explained coach Josh Zimmerman.The combination of Danner being tired from running bases and Blue Mountain not giving up made things interesting in the seventh. The Eagles used four straight singles and a groundout to plate two runs, but Danner was able to shut down the rally without any further damage.Blue Mountain coach Terry Ernst wasn't surprised to see his team battling even though they were down 5-0 and had gathered just two hits through the first six innings."When I took the job, I asked the girls to make me a goal sheet and every single one of them said that they wanted to learn how to finish games, because they lost a lot of games in late innings. This year, we have finished games tremendously well, we do not give up and I love that of the girls, but now, we tend to start off slow. Next year, if we can get the two to merge together, we're going to be in good shape," said Ernst.Blue Mountain 000 000 2 - 2 6 3Northwestern 100 310 x - 5 5 0Gerace, Washko (5) and Labe; Danner and Wehr. W - Danner L - Gerace.