The Lady Zephyrs appeared to be set for a District 11 softball championship and a trip to the PIAA playoffs until a controversial play in extra innings ended their hopes.

After Whitehall took a 2-0 lead in the top of the ninth inning, Parkland rallied and ended the game on a bloop single that wound up going just past shortstop Julia Solderitch, sending Parkland on to the state playoffs with a 3-2 win in nine innings.

Everybody on the Whitehall side of the field wanted interference called on the play, stating that Parkland’s Shauna Frank, who was running from second to third, interfered with Solderitch.

The umpires ruled that because Frank was behind Solderitch, the interference rule didn’t come into play.

“That’s just something that we can’t control,” said Whitehall coach Alexis Berg-Townsend. “You can only do so much and it looked like we had the game until that play. Even when that ball was hit, I thought we had the game.”

Parkland’s pitcher, Aubree Fritzinger held the Zephs hitless until the seventh inning, when Julia Solderitch lined a shot off the glove of shortstop Kyliegh Staudt. Kay Solderitch was able to hold the high-powered Parkland offense off the board until that bottom of the ninth inning. Both pitchers kept opposing hitters completely off stride and when balls were hit well, both defenses came up with big plays to keep the game scoreless until the ninth.

“We can’t feel bad about how we played today,” said Berg-Townsend. “Our girls came in confident and we played a great game, but just couldn’t finish it out at the end. Things go a little differently here and there and we win, but they just as well could have had things go their way earlier in the game, too.”

There was another controversial play earlier in the inning when a ball hit to Kay Solderitch glanced off her glove and bounded to older sister Julia, who grabbed the ball and dove toward second base in an attempt to retire pinch-runner Alexia Medero. Most of the park thought Medero was out and the game was over, but the umpire saw it differently and called Medero safe, keeping Parkland alive.

“That was another play where we can’t control that. Julia made a great play on the ball and did everything right, but she was ruled safe,” lamented Berg-Townsend.

Rachel Spanitz led off the ninth with a double and later scored on an RBI single from Gabrielle Molitoris to put the Lady Zephyrs up 1-0. What looked at the time to be an insurance run, scored when Jillian Rex hit an infield chopper to put Whitehall up 2-0. Kay Solderitch hadn’t shown any signs of tiring and the Whitehall players, coaches and fans all seemed satisfied that they would be leaving with a victory. Instead, Parkland mounted their ninth inning rally to take their third-straight district title.

Whitehall finished the season 19-6 overall.