Bethlehem Catholic softball coach Rich Mazza didn’t think his team would quit after trailing Blue Mountain by three runs in a District XI Class 4A semifinal, but for the Golden Hawks to win it by mercy rule was a whole different story that started in the bottom of the fifth inning last Thursday at Becahi.

With two outs, and two runners on base, Becahi junior Jordan Merklin had an RBI double that dropped in left center.

“It was exciting to help the team out and get it started for everyone because that’s a big deal with two outs,” Merklin said, “but honestly, I’ve seen this happen before with us.”

Jaden Spigner then tied the game, 5-5, on a double to left field, and Ashley Judd’s single to left gave the Hawks a 6-5 lead.

“We always seem to come back and have a two-out rally,” said Judd. “That seems to happen more often than not.”

And the hits kept coming.

Adrianna Truss, Kristal Torres, and Teighan Boyle all had RBIs to put the Hawks up, 9-5.

“I think we notice when we’re not playing to the best of our ability, and sometimes it takes us a little while, but we all want to win,” said Spigner. “I was a little upset at first because I know we can play better than this if our heads are in the game, but then we turned it around really quick, and I felt a lot better after that.”

And then there were more.

In the bottom of the sixth, Spigner had another double to left, and Judd’s base hit flew down the third base line.

“She was pitching a lot outside, and I was up on the plate, but then the pitch came inside, and I just got it down the line. I thought it was going foul, but thank God it was fair,” Judd said. “I never thought it would get to mercy rule because the game in the beginning was much different, but we came back in the end.”

With the score 12-5, Torres had a base hit that fell in short right and later got caught in a rundown when she ended up scoring Becahi’s 13th run.

“I tend not to hit toward right, but she was pitching me outside, so I had to take it that way,” Torres said. “I was rounding second and I saw the throw to first was slow so I was like, OK, I can get to third, but I started to see the third baseman had the ball, so I had to choose, and then she overthrew it. It was very nerve wracking because I did not want to get out.”

Boyle’s two RBI’s won the game for the Hawks by mercy rule, 15-5.

“I didn’t think our kids would quit. I really didn’t, so I’m really pleased. They know there’s opportunities if they work hard,” said Coach Mazza. “We heard Blue Mountain was gonna’ pitch a lefty, and they didn’t, so we worked on that, and that might’ve hurt us early in the game, but once we caught on to her...and we heard they only had one or two hitters, but they have about four or five.”

The Hawks will have played in the district final against Northwestern on Tuesday, which took place past Press deadlines.

“They’re very, very good,” said Mazza, “so we’ll see what happens.”