The Northwestern Lehigh softball seniors are on a mission.

Even with all of the success they have had, they have not been able to win a league championship and a district championship in the same year. The seniors have gone to both the league and district championship games in all four of their seasons, with a league championship in 2024 and a district championship last season.

They have reached the state semifinals in three straight seasons without making the PIAA finals, so the mission is clearly defined.

With wins in the league quarterfinals and semifinals, the Tigers will look for their second Colonial League championship in as many seasons tonight when they face Palmerton, a team they have defeated twice during the regular season.

CL Quarterfinal

Northwestern 3, Salisbury 2

In the quarterfinals, Northwestern took on the upstart Salisbury Falcons.

With no seniors on its roster, Salisbury has been somewhat of a surprise in the Colonial League, but they wasn’t able to surprise the Lady Tigers. Northwestern downed Salisbury 3-2.

Lizzie Diehl threw a complete game for Northwestern and Sam Boyer launched a home run to center field in the bottom of the second inning to give her team a lead they would not relinquish at 2-0.

“We were excited to get the postseason started and get our here to play,” said Boyer. “We came in with a good attitude, and we definitely didn’t underestimate them, because they’ve had a great season.”

In the fourth, Ella Bressi hit a hard line drive right back at pitcher Jenna Swoyer that popped out of her glove, allowing Lilly Kinnon to score from third for a 3-0 edge.

“We knew we had to stay competitive and not sleep on them or anything,” noted Kinnon. “To get those hits and score the run was really important to me, so I could help my team and help put us ahead.”

Salisbury put up a pair of runs in the sixth, but Diehl got the final out of the inning to keep her team on top.

“Lizzie was sort of second to Emma Freeman when I got here and we stuck with that,” said Tiger head coach Kate Farber. “This year though we had Lizzie pitching more often and she really responded. She does a great job at second base, and we can also put Emma there, too. They have both really handled it well, and I think that it gives us an extra look for teams to worry about.”

Diehl opened the inning by getting an infield pop-up and then struck out the next two batters to give her 11 strikeouts on the night.

The strikeouts put Diehl over the 100 career strikeout threshold, which is quite an accomplishment considering that Freeman has been the ace of the staff and pitched the majority of the innings over the past three seasons. Diehl has worked her way into the pitching plans more this season than in any of her first three seasons.

“Emma’s been our main pitcher, so it wasn’t necessarily a milestone that I thought I would reach. She is amazing, so it’s exciting that I could get this in my senior year,” said Diehl of her 100 strikeouts. “This was definitely a good day.”

CL Semifinal

Northwestern 4, So. Lehigh 1

Thanks in part to her outing against Salisbury, Farber showed confidence in Diehl and allowed her to pitch through some tough stretches against Southern Lehigh in the semifinals on Tuesday night.

Like she did against Salisbury, Diehl hit a bump in the road against the Spartans and while Farber gave serious thought to making a change in the circle, she stayed with Diehl. The result was a 4-1 win and a trip back to the finals.

“Honestly, we were close (to replacing Diehl),” said Farber. “Southern Lehigh is a really good hitting team, so we kind of had a feeling that they were going to start to square the ball up a little bit better.

“We had two separate conversations with Lizzie and we got to a point where we thought we should go to a different look, but I put the ball in her hand so to speak and she said ‘I want to try, give me a shot.’ She earned every bit of that, so we gave her the nod.”

Abby Dunstan provided the power with a two-run home run and later worked to calm her pitcher down in the sixth inning. With Diehl struggling, Dunstan went to the circle for a one-on-one with her classmate.

“She just kind of distracted me. It was more so like ‘hey, don’t think about it, just take things light.’ When you’re tense and in that situation, you’re all focused up and that’s when things tend to go awry,” said Diehl of the conversation with Dunstan. “She did a great job just to come out, calm me down, and turn the nerves off.”

Two straight strikeouts left the bases loaded.

Northwestern added a run and Diehl headed for the circle in the seventh. She recorded the first two outs quickly and then Lily Kelly put a bit of a bump in the inning when she doubled to left center. The next batter grounded out to end the game.

With the Tigers up 2-0 on Dunstan’s home run, Molly Schlofer led off the fourth inning with a double to left field. Boyer dropped a sacrifice bunt to move Schlofer to third and Lily Kinnon grounded a ball through the middle to make it 3-0.

A walk to Boyer, an error, and an RBI single by Freeman added more insurance after the Spartans had put up their run, giving Northwestern a 4-1 lead after six innings.

“Everybody contributed in this game,” said Kinnon. “As seniors, we came in with a lot of confidence because we have been here so many times, and we knew that we could get it done. We just had to string those hits together and make things happen on defense.”