A seventh-inning rally got the Emmaus softball team into the District 11 title game.

Another seventh-inning spurt helped Emmaus extend the title game to extra innings.

But Northampton pushed a run across the plate in the top of the eighth inning last Thursday night at Pates Park to win this year’s district crown 2-1 over the Hornets.

“I’m very proud of them,” said Emmaus head coach Rich Geiring. “The losses always sting and we’ll talk about it. We have a game Monday in states. They haven’t been to states in a good, long while. We’ll get back to work.”

After Emmaus tied the title game with a run in the bottom of the seventh inning, Northampton’s Kiley Hentritzy and Josephine Siegfried hit back-to-back singles to start the eighth inning. Siegfried scored on a sacrifice fly for a 2-1 lead before Emmaus pitcher Mari Eiswerth got a strike out and fly out to end the inning.

The Hornets threatened in the bottom of the inning.

Calise Eiswrth and Brianni Gitzki hit one-out singled for Emmaus. Pinch runner Autumn Tarbox nearly scored on Taylor Hauver’s two-out single but slipped rounding third base and was thrown out at the plate.

“You always play aggressive,” said Geiring of the decision to send Tarbox home on the play. “You have to force teams to make plays sometimes. She’s a very good base runner. When she hit that bag she slipped a little bit.”

Northampton, the No. 5 seed in districts, had just six hits in the game off Mari Eiswerth, who struck out 17 batters while walking just one over all eight innings. She pitched around three errors.

The No. 2 seed Hornets got 10 hits off Kids starter Rylee Gable, who struck out seven and walked two. Emmaus’ only run was unearned.

Both pitchers were dominating the game until Northampton’s Avery Deibert hit a leadoff home run in the fourth inning for a 1-0 lead.

Emmaus loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth inning on singles by Abby Derr, Mari Eiswerth and Morgan Schwab. But Gable retired the next three batters to get out of the jam.

The Hornets tied the game when Gitski reached base on an error and got to second on a sacrifice bunt. Hauver singled to drive in Gitski and tie the game.

Emmaus loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh but was unable to score the winning run.

Geiring felt his team made a statement to the league that despite playing in an East Penn Conference Lehigh Division against some of the league’s weaker teams, the Hornets are still among the elite teams in the league.

“All we heard all year long was our schedule blah, blah, blah,” he said. “We proved to them and the other division that we belong and we ain’t going anywhere.”

Hauver went 3-for-4 in the title game and drove in a run. She also walked once. Mari Eiswerth had two hits in the game.

Siegfried had two hits for Northampton.

The title game was the second consecutive nail-biter for the Hornets after they beat Stroudsburg 2-1 in last Tuesday’s semifinal with a two-run seventh-inning rally.

With the season on the line, Emmaus trailed 1-0 heading into the bottom of the last inning against Stroudsburg.

Calise Eiswerth and Hauver reached base in the inning before Sydney Bennett’s walk-off, two-out doubles scored a pair of runs to end the game.

Mari Eiswerth struck out 14 Mountaineer batters in the semifinal while walking two over seven innings.

Bennett went 3-for-4 against Stroudsburg with a pair of RBI. Schwab (2-for-3) also had two hits in the win.

Emmaus (20-5) advanced to the state playoffs to face District 1’s second-place team, Souderton (20-4), Monday.