Lehigh Valley's run in the Carpenter Cup Softball Tournament ended last Wednesday with a 7-4 loss to Mercer County at FDR Park in Philadelphia.

Liberty High School and Lehigh Valley shortstop Kristin Kaleycik said, "For the most part, we were keeping up with them. For a couple of innings, we were going back and forth, and then they just started hitting."

Mercer County was finding the holes that were eluding Lehigh Valley.

"That one inning," said Kaleycik. "I think we could have beat them."

Earlier that day, Lehigh Valley defeated Inter-AC 10-3. That game picked up in the second inning after being halted the day before when thunderstorms broke.

"We were up to begin with, so we were all doing our jobs, making plays, and hitting," Kaleycik said.

Lehigh Valley was ahead 4-0 when the game was stopped. Kaleycik had hits in both games last Wednesday.

The day before, Lehigh Valley was handed its first loss of the double-elimination tournament from Delaware South, losing 14-2, but that did not stop Lehigh Valley from coming back to defeat Jersey Shore 9-3 later on in the day before the rain.

"We were down on ourselves because we didn't expect to lose by that much. On our break we talked and focused on having fun, and we did a lot better," Kaleycik said.

In the game against Jersey Shore, Kaleycik had a triple that went over the left fielder's head as well as a single.

"The whole time in the second game, we were talking a lot more and making plays a lot better," she said.

Jersey Shore began to inch its way back, pulling to within two runs by the fifth inning, but Nazareth High School's Toni Anne Hahn had a two-run homer, which helped widen Lehigh Valley's lead.

In the end, Lehigh Valley's record was 2-2 in the tournament, an improvement over last year when Lehigh Valley was knocked out on the first day.

For Kaleycik, the experience was memorable.

"I've never played with a team I haven't known, so to have this new experience was memorable," said Kaleycik.

Downtime was spent bonding with each other, recalling games played against each other during the regular high school season, and even some good-natured pokes at Parkland High School's Shauna Frank, just for being Parkland.

Because Kaleycik just completed her sophomore year, she will have an opportunity to play on the team again next year.

"I wanted to keep going, and I'm not really going to see them again, so it was sad," she said.

Valley's coach, John Eyer, told his team he enjoyed seeing them grow together and that he can't wait until next year.