The Salisbury softball team came close to reaching this year’s Colonial League playoffs. The Lady Falcons lost four of their final five conference games, including Monday’s regular season finale against Southern Lehigh, to fall out of contention.

But the Lady Falcons’ season doesn’t look to be over just yet. A key win last week over Northern Lehigh, 11-1, positioned Salisbury in a nice spot for the upcoming District 11 Class 3A tournament. The Falcons are currently seeded seventh, while Northern Lehigh holds the No. 8 seed in the eight-team playoff field.

“We beat Northern Lehigh, which is a nice win,” head coach Jeff Appleman said last week. “We have three games to end the season against good teams. We’ll see how far we’ve grown and matured at this point.”

As the standings sit now, No. 2 seed North Schuylkill and Salisbury would meet in the first round of districts. But that could change depending on how league playoffs shape up in both the Schuylkill League and Colonial League.

Those final three games to end the season were a tough task, but they could have propelled the Lady Falcons back to the Colonial League tournament for the first time since 2018. During that season, No. 4 seed Salisbury upset top-seeded Bangor along the way to a title game appearance.

However, losses to Northwestern (11-1), Notre Dame-Green Pond (14-9) and Southern Lehigh (11-1) ended those hopes in 2021. All three teams qualified for the Colonial League tournament this spring.

“We have played well overall,” Appleman said. “All aspects have been a lot better, but we can still play better. The young players are playing well.”

Despite losing three straight games to end the regular season, Appleman was pleased with the way the Lady Falcons had been playing as of late. Before that stretch, Salisbury won four of its prior five games.

To go along with a 4-3 nonleague win over Allen, Salisbury took down Pen Argyl (9-5), Catasauqua (11-1) and Northern Lehigh in a span of 11 days. One of the more impressive wins of that stretch was against the Green Knights of Pen Argyl.

“I would say the Pen Argyl win [stands out to me],” Appleman said. “We are very close with them in the district standings.

“Our defense has been much improved. Again, we can be better, but we improved in that area.”

Pen Argyl is seeded sixth in the Class 3A standings, preceded by No. 5 Central Catholic, No. 4 Pine Grove, No. 3 Notre Dame (Green Pond), No. 2 North Schuylkill and No. 1 seed Palmerton.

And against Northern Lehigh, Appleman called it some of the best softball his team has played all spring.

The Colonial League playoffs are set to begin on Friday with the quarterfinals round at Pates Park. The semifinals are set for the following Tuesday, May 18, followed by the championship game on Thursday.

Districts will begin on May 24 with pigtail games, followed by the quarterfinals round the next day.