BETHLEHEM Kendra Pekurny gave Bethlehem Catholic hitters fits the first time through the lineup.

Unfortunately for the Palmerton pitcher and her teammates, those hitters made adjustments the second time around.After Pekurny didn't give up a hit through the first two innings of Wednesday's District 11 Class AAA semifinal game, the Golden Hawk bats came alive and eventually posted a 7-1 victory."We had an 18-day layoff .. and that makes it rough," said Becahi head coach Rich Mazza, whose team advances to tonight's championship game against Wilson. "We were a little stale the first time around. She's a good pitcher. She'd do well in our league, there's no question about that."We hit the ball early but didn't find holes. Our players pick each other up and once they started falling, everybody got into the action."The Bombers' sophomore pitcher limited the top-seeded team in Class AAA to an 0-for-7 effort (with a walk and hit batter) the first time through. After that, however, Becahi went 11-for-19.The onslaught started in the third inning with Palmerton holding a 1-0 lead. Six straight hitters reached base, four of them on singles, as the Hawks pushed across four runs.Julia Madison collected the first hit, while Angelys Cotto, Bethanne Brandstetter and Elyse Cuttic all had RBI singles in the frame."We haven't hit in a game in a while and I think that had something to do with (our slow start)," said Madison, who finished with three hits. "But once we got to see her we adjusted to her, and got some hits. And that led to some runs."After the first inning, runs were hard to come by for the Bombers. Steph Brinker's deep drive hit off the center fielder's glove went for a triple and Janel Tracy followed with a sharp single to give Palmerton a lead just three batters into the contest. But Bob Hock's team managed just one hit (a Pekurny single in the third) the rest of the way."Anytime you can get a lead in a softball game, it's a good thing," said Hock. "We actually had two shutdown innings after that. But they ended up hitting the ball well and you have to tip your hat to them for doing that."I was happy with the way we swung the bats today. We hit the ball, maybe not quite as well as they did, but we hit it solidly. Unfortunately we didn't find the openings on the field. We missed out on a couple doubles down the line and hit some line drives at people. I was very pleased with how we swung the bats all year and today was no different."One of those line drives almost got Palmerton back into the game.Trailing 5-1, an error, walk and sacrifice bunt put two runners in scoring position in the top of the fifth inning. Brinker ripped a ball to the right side but the Hawks' first baseman, Kaelah Horwath, snared the hot shot to end the threat."That line drive could have brought in two runs for us but it just wasn't meant to be," said Hock. "Despite that, it showed our girls kept battling. I'm very proud of this group."Becahi pushed across two more runs in the home sixth to put the game out of reach. AnnLi Dietrich, who scored three runs, knocked in one on a ground out while Emily Brandstetter singled home the other.Cuttic, the game's winning pitcher, closed out the game with a pair of strikeouts."She throws nice," said Hock. "We don't see a lot of lefties. As far as speed goes, she's as quick as anyone in our league but our hitters weren't intimidated."Overall, I think the season was a success. There may have been some higher expectations on us within the league but unfortunately we got off to a slow start ... We were 5-6 at one point but came into here today at 13-8. Once we figured some things out we turned it around nicely."Palmerton 100 000 0 - 1 3 0Beth. Cath. 004 102 x - 7 11 1Pekurny and Campbell; Cuttic and Markovic. W - Cuttic. L - Pekurny.