At 14-0 in the Lehigh Valley Conference and 18-0 overall, Parkland certainly isn't going to let up now that playoff season is underway. Instead, the the Trojan softball team refocused on taking a postseason ride that it hopes will wind up in a state championship.

The Trojans took their latest step Monday night, blasting Northampton 10-0 in the LVC semifinals to set up a meeting with their old friends from Emmaus in the conference finals.

While Morgan Rentzheimer was her usual steady self on the mound, throwing six shutout innings, Emma Varrato went to work offensively and was a home run short of hitting for the cycle. Varrato tripled in two first-inning runs, doubled and scored in the fourth and drove in another run with a game-finishing RBI single in the sixth.

"I was just thinking that I had to get the bat on the ball," said Varrato of her seventh inning hit. "I wasn't even thinking that I had to score the run. I just wanted to get on base and not make an out."

The first inning opened well, with Jordy Augustus drawing a lead-off walk. Augustus scored on an error before Varrato delivered her triple. Courtney Miller and Madi Marshall both singled ahead of Varrato's hit that put Parkland up 3-0 with only one out in the first. Singles by Sydney Stibitz and Taylor Knappenberger, along with another Northampton error would have the Lady Trojans up 6-0 after the first inning.

Taylor Keeney came on in relief of Deb Renner for Northampton to get the final out of the first inning and settled in to keep Parkland's bats quiet for the next two innings.

By the fourth inning, the bats had something more to say and with two outs, Miller doubled and scored on a wild pitch. With Marshall and Varrato on base, Rentzheimer delivered a double to drive in both runners, putting Parkland up 9-0, just one run short of the ten-run rule.

In the sixth, Miller and Marshall again set the table with singles and Varrato delivered the final blow with a base-hit.

Varrato believes that the team continues to get better and better and that its never lost sight of all that the players want to accomplish. For them, the perfect record in the regular season is just the start and the mission is far from over.

"We have our goals set to win LVCs," she said. "We want to win districts. We want to go all the way and that includes states. I'm confident in our team. We can do anything."

"I think they're going to want to come out and be ferocious and try to get back at us, but we'll play our ball game and we'll be fine," Varrato said.

The LVC Championship is Thursday night at Patriot's Park.

Prior to the semifinal game, the Lehigh Valley Conference All-Star Team was announced. Parkland led the way with four players Augustus, Marshall, Rentzheimer and Abby Fritzinger all being selected for the first-team. Knappenberger and Stibitz were named as Honorable Mentions.