Two local teams that each won state championships in their respective softball classifications last season met for the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Championship last week. The result wasn’t what anybody expected. The Parkland offense exploded to down Bethlehem Catholic 13-2 and win the Trojans’ third straight conference title.

“If you would have told me the score before we played, I wouldn’t have believed you,” said Parkland coach Barry Search. “They’ve been playing so well all season that I thought this was going to be a close game. I liked our chances, but I thought it was going to be a tough one.”

Alyssa Oakley collected three hits, while Shauna Frank, Steph Herpel and Chelsea Morgan each had two hits, with Morgan driving in four runs for the Lady Trojans. It didn’t help the Golden Hawks chances that they made five errors in the game, two of them coming in the first inning when Parkland jumped out to a 2-0 lead.

“That’s one thing that we always try to do,” said Search. “When the other team makes some mistakes, you have to try to take advantage of that. Our offense has been coming together over the last three weeks or so and we hit the ball well today.”

In its last nine games, Parkland is undefeated and has outscored opponents 75-11 after starting the season with a hit-and-miss offense. The late-season surge and conference title gave Parkland the top seed in the District 11 playoffs, where the Lady Trojans are also looking for a third straight championship.

“I think we’ve just been more confident and have been building off of each other as the season went on,” said Morgan. “We don’t look too far ahead. We’ve been through this before, so we know how to win and we know that you have to take it almost an inning at a time. We’ve gotten much better as the season has gone on this year.”

Last season, Parkland swept through both the EPC and District 11 playoffs and advanced through the PIAA bracket to add a state championship to their history. This year’s team is different, but they have the same goals and the same determination to get back to playing at Penn State for another PIAA title.

“It’s a different kind of leadership from the seniors, but that’s not to say that either group was better,” said Search. “This team and last year’s team are different, but they’re also both determined to win and the seniors have the respect of the underclassmen. You never know what’s going to happen, but we’re playing well and the girls aren’t taking anything for granted.”

After a first-round bye in districts, Parkland hosts Pocono Mountain East Thursday. The Cardinals, seeded ninth, downed eighth-seeded Stroudsburg 9-4 to advance to a meeting with the Lady Trojans.

“I don’t think that it matters to us who we play,” Morgan said. “We know that we’ll be seeing good teams and it’s only going to get tougher, so we just have to keep focused on what we need to do to win and not worry about who’s next on the schedule or who we might face later on. If you focus too much on that, it only makes it tougher to get there.”