The annual Colonial League Play Day gives league teams the opportunity to play at Patriots Park as the 12 softball teams meet over two days at the historic field.

Salisbury had an early wake up call Saturday morning and had to face Saucon Valley. The Falcons came into the game with momentum as they had downed Catasauqua 15-0 a day earlier.

The Panthers put together back-to-back innings with a run late in the game to grab a 3-2 win over Salisbury.

With the standings tightly packed, the loss was a difficult one for Salisbury to absorb as teams start the back half of their season schedules. Saucon Valley was able to generate just enough offense against junior Tessa Kemmerer to get the win, collecting just three hits along the way.

In the first inning, Salisbury allowed Saucon Valley to grab an early run on a walk, a stolen base, a passed ball and a sacrifice fly that brought in the first run of the game.

Salisbury got a pair of singles against Matty Seyfried but were unable to push across a run.

Kemmerer seemed to be on cruise control after the first inning when she retired 13 of the 14 hitters she faced, allowing just one single along the way and striking out five batters. Seyfried was on much the same sort of path when she struck out four straight batters and had two outs and nobody on in the top of the third.

Kemmerer ruined the run when she hammered a pitch to right field that eluded Nadiya Vutech the right fielder and rolled to the fence. Kemmerer never slowed as she rounded the bases for an inside the park home run to tie the game 1-1. The home run was the second of the season for Kemmerer.

“Tessa did a good job at the plate and pitching today,” said Fehnel. “I think she can be even better in both areas though. If we can get her to trust her stuff and eliminate some of the walks she gives up, she can be even better than the pitcher we saw today.”

The game remained tied until there were two outs in the bottom of the fifth. Nevaeh Quinones, who had been the last hitter to reach base against Kemmerer two innings earlier, worked a walk. On the second pitch to Hailey Marth, Quinones stole second and went to third on a wild pitch on the next pitch to Marth. Catcher Brinlee Neitz thought she had Quinones caught off the bag and threw to third, but the ball got past third baseman Gianna Olds and Quinones scored to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead through five innings.

Saucon Valley picked up an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth on a one-out single and stolen base by Alexis Quinones and one out later, Savannah Schlegel singled to right field to push the lead to 3-2 in favor of Saucon Valley.

On the other side of the ledger, Seyfried didn’t allow the home run to disrupt her, and she went on to retire the next 11 hitters, seven of them on strikeouts to push her total for the day to 12.

Salisbury broke through in the top of the seventh when Jenna Swoyer drove a ball into right center field for a double.

Sophia Gunning, who has been battling a nagging injury, singled through the infield and when the ball was misplayed in center field, Swoyer scored to make it 3-2. With Gunning on third, Seyfried got a pop-up and her 13th strikeout put down the threat by Salisbury.

After the game, Fehnel stressed to his players what they have to do to reach the playoffs this season.

“I told them that we have to cut down on our mistakes,” said Fehnel. “Both the physical mistakes and the mental mistakes. You have to know the situation and know when not to take risks and look for the right situations to capitalize.

Striking out 13 times as a team isn’t going to lead to a lot of wins. You have to at least make contact and try to make things happen. They had a good pitcher out there, but we could have won this game if we cut down on some of the strikeouts and eliminated all of the mistakes.”

It had been a different story a day earlier for the Lady Falcons. Neitz had three hits in the win over the Rough Riders. Salisbury used a 10-run third inning to put away Catasauqua. In that inning, Sydney Foulke had two singles, Jenna Swoyer doubled, and Olds, Leilanna Negron, Neitz, and Alaina Pavolko all singled to drive in at least one run each for the Falcons.

Olds drove in three runs in the game while Julia Carney, Swoyer, and Foulke all pushed two runs across.

The game lasted only three innings because of the 15-run rule. Swoyer handled the pitching and allowed just one hit while striking out six batters.