NEW TRIPOLI - Pen Argyl's Kassy Beckage hit a sharp grounder to North Schuylkill third baseman Robyn Orth, who bent down, picked the ball off the dirt and threw to first baseman Chase Stokes for the game's final out.
It was a rather routine ending to a nearly perfect two-day performance from the Spartans. They not only finished what they started Tuesday, but also ended three years of postseason frustration.
Kayla Bolinsky was 3-for-3, including an inside-the-park homer, while Cassie Lapotsky retired nine of the final 11 hitters she faced, as North Schuylkill made quick work of the Green Knights with a 7-2 victory in the District 11 Class AA semifinals Wednesday afternoon at Northwestern Lehigh High School.
The contest resumed in the bottom of the fifth after the game was suspended by rain Tuesday. The break didn't bother the fourth-seeded Spartans (14-8), who needed about 35 minutes to advance to the their first district final since 1984.
The top-seeded Green Knights (20-3), the Colonial League and defending district champs, have been North Schuylkill's biggest recent playoff nemesis after beating the Spartans in the semifinals in 2009 (6-0) and in 2011 (2-1). North Schuylkill fell to Palmerton 4-2 in 8 innings in the district quarterfinals in 2010.
"They broke our hearts last year, and we broke their hearts this year," senior Madison Newhouser said. "They are a great team, but we were better today."
The Spartans move on to face No. 2 Pine Grove (23-2) in the championship game at 1 this afternoon at Blue Mountain's Patton Field. It will be the third meeting between the two teams this season, with the Cardinals winning 6-0 on April 20 and 4-2 in 11 innings on May 10.
After a slow start at the plate against Pen Arygl starter Emily Smull, North Schuylkill finished with 11 hits. No player was hotter at the plate than Bolinsky, a junior.
Hitting out of the No. 9 spot, she led off the second, third and fifth innings by getting on base all three times and scoring three runs.
"She came through," North Schuylkill coach Dominick Grasso said. "We had first-inning blahs but after that everything was fine. Our kids came up when they had to come up."
Tuesday, Bolinsky started the third with a bunt single and scored on a two-run single by Newhouser that tied the game at 2. It was the start of a five-run inning that gave North Schuylkill the lead for good. Bolinsky led off the fourth with a triple and later come home on a bloop single to center by Nadya Spotts.
Bolinsky ripped the first pitch she saw Wednesday in the bottom of the sixth over the head of the right fielder and raced all the way around to score. It was her first home run of the season.
"She had the best game of her career," Newhouser said. "She did it all today."
Bri Schlauch, Spotts and Newhouser had two hits apiece. Newhouser had a two-run single in the third to give the Spartans a 3-2 lead.
"We waited," Lapotsky said. "We really saw the ball a lot better the second time around. When one person hits, we get a chain going."
After a rough first inning, when she allowed a two-run triple to Beckage and threw 27 pitches, Lapotsky settled down. She wasn't overpowering, striking out four, but hit her spots. She finished with a six-hitter and walked only two, both in the first inning.
Lapotsky threw 96 pitches, 66 for strikes. The only baserunners she allowed during Wednesday's resumption were a two-out double to Smull in the fifth and Alyssa Weaver reaching on a one-out error in the seventh.
"The first inning I was just trying to throw strikes and trying to find the strike zone," Lapotsky said. "I told myself in the second inning, 'If you are going to get strikeouts and throw a good game, you have to hit your spots and throw all your pitches. You just have to get it done.' "
All the Spartans did.
The win was the perfect birthday present for Newhouser, although a day late, after she turned 18 on Tuesday.
"That's all I wanted," she said.
North Schuylkill also dedicated the win to assistant coach Jack Dalton, who developed blood clots and went to Lehigh Valley Hospital on Sunday. The Spartans gathered around in a huddle after the game and called Dalton on a cell phone.
"We had a lot of reasons to win," Lapotsky said. "We just played with a lot of heart today."
With no time to celebrate, and the district title game against the Cardinals today, the Spartans went back to school Wednesday evening and worked on hitting in their batting cages.
"We saw (Pine Grove's Ethel Santai), they saw me. It is all going to come down to hitting," Lapotsky said.