Parkland quickly cut its way past Whitehall and Freedom in the East Penn Conference softball playoffs to reach the finals against Northampton.

The Trojans were looking for their sixth straight league championship. They opened the game with a run in the bottom of the first inning, took advantage of a key error to score twice in the fourth and then added an insurance run in the fifth as they fought to a 4-0 win over the Konkrete Kids to make it six straight championships.

Kelly Dulaney was her usual tough self on the mound, allowing just two hits and issuing just one walk. Dulaney allowed a one-out double in the sixth, but quickly got two outs to end the inning without any damage. She issued a two-out walk in the seventh and that was followed by a base hit to put runners on first and second. She rebounded to get a groundball to short that ended the game.

Between an error with one out in the third inning and the sixth inning double, Dulaney retired nine straight batters, picking up all three of her strikeouts during that stretch.

“You can’t say enough about Kelly,” said Parkland head coach Barry Search. “We just keep running her out there and she does her job. She’s a wonderful person off the field and she’s been a pleasure to coach on the field. She never shies away from hard work. That’s what has made her so good.”

Parkland picked up a first-inning run when Caroline Rivera grounded a ball up the middle for a base-hit. Nicole Klass bunted her over to second and Renee Snyder bumped her up a base with a line-drive single to center. With just one out, starting pitcher Kaira Zamadics delivered a wild pitch and Rivera was able to come home with the game’s first run.

The Trojans put runners on the corners with one out in the third, but failed to score. The next inning, Hailey Druckenmiller worked a leadoff walk and was bunted to second by pinch-hitter Madolyn Fernandes. One out later, a fielding error brought Druckenmiller home. Klass then delivered a groundball into right field that scored Rivera, who reached on the error and Parkland had expanded their lead to 3-0. Back-to-back doubles from Megan Fenstermaker and Dulaney in the fifth made it 4-0.

“We lost to them the first game of the season and we never forgot that,” said Dulaney. “Losing that first game really sent us a message and pushed us to work harder through the rest of the season.”

Parkland will now look for its 16th District 11 championship as it enters the tournament as the top seed in the 6A classification.

“We have to see what happens, because there are a lot of good teams out there,” said Search. “I feel confident with this group of girls though. They all work hard. They’re good people and they pick each other up. You couldn’t ask for a better team to coach.”