As the District 11 softball playoffs got underway on Monday, the Trojans had to wait to see who their opponent would be in the quarterfinal round. Easton and Liberty battled with the Red Rovers pounding out an 11-1 win to earn the right to meet Parkland on Tuesday.

Easton’s bats wouldn’t produce the type of run support that they did against Liberty and their pitching couldn’t contain the Lady Trojans offense as Parkland won 8-3 Tuesday to advance to the semifinals where they’re set for another showdown with Emmaus.

Renee Snyder had three hits and drove in three runs on the day for Parkland, who used a five-run sixth inning to put the game away. Kelly Dulaney was tough on the Red Rovers’ offense until the seventh inning when they used three singles and a double to plate all three of their runs in an abbreviated run at a comeback.

It was Snyder who drove in the first run of the game in the bottom of the third inning when she stepped to the plate with runners on second and third and delivered a groundball up the middle to drive in Caroline Rivera and make it 1-0.

“That’s really what we’ve been working on these last couple of games is to get up and stay up and not let down,” said Snyder of the early lead in the game.

The senior right fielder was in the middle of the scoring again in the fifth. This time she came to the plate with a runner on first and two outs. Just looking to make contact, Snyder ripped a deep fly ball to center field that sent Easton’s Mackenzie Keegan running back to the fence in the deepest part of the park. Snyder tracked her way around the bases and slid safely into third with her second RBI of the game for the Lady Trojans. Kylie Hlay followed Snyder with a deep fly ball to right to give Parkland back-to-back triples and a 3-0 lead.

After Parkland put runners into scoring position in each of the first two innings, Dulaney didn’t allow a runner to reach second until the seventh inning. The closest anyone came to reaching second was when Courtney Grundhauser reached on an error and attempted to steal second but was gunned down on a strong throw by catcher Gianna Schick.

Not content with their three-run advantage, the Trojans went to work again in the sixth against reliever Tess Ruschman, who recorded the final out of the fifth inning. This time around, Parkland played small ball, with five straight singles, including RBI singles from Schick and Snyder wrapped around a two-run single from Rivera. The scoring was capped when Rivera raced home from third on a wild pitch.

“We prepared well all week and just had that attitude coming into the game that nobody is better and we just had to carry that over as a team,” said Snyder. “That’s what we’ve been talking to everybody about. At the beginning of the season our bats weren’t there, but we’ve turned it around by just thinking positive things.”

The game represented the last time that the seniors would play on their home field and Snyder pointed out that as a group, they wanted to leave their field behind with a win.

“It was so important to us as seniors, knowing that this was our last game,” she said. “Even to the underclassmen, it’s important that this was their last game here this season and nobody comes here and beats us.”