ALLENTOWN - “Stay together,” was the message that Northwestern coach Josh Zimmerman delivered to his team following its 5-3 loss to Bangor in the Colonial League Championship game at Patriots Park in Allentown Thursday night.

“We have proven that we have the ability to do it, but I’m not necessarily sure the focus was a hundred percent there tonight,” Zimmerman said.

Bangor gained a little payback from the Tigers, who beat them 8-7 in last year’s championship game. Northwestern Lehigh also downed the Slaters early in the season by an 18-7 score, but Thursday night’s game was much different from either of those two.

In the first inning, Bangor (15-7) put up a quick run when leadoff hitter Lexi Bussenger singled and stole second before Jenna Fey delivered a two-out single through the middle to make it 1-0.

From there, Northwestern starter Brynn Balliet went on to retire five straight batters, and at one point had retired seven of the eight she faced, six of them on strikeouts. By the end of the night, Balliet had struck out 10.

Northwestern (16-4) tied the game in the second when Balliet worked a walk to open the inning, and courtesy runner Summer Hamack was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Quinn Conrey. One out later, Rylee McGinley singled and Hamack came around to score on an errant throw.

Both teams put up a run in the third inning with Bussenger again starting the trouble with a one-out single and another stolen base. This time, it would be Kristina Langdon who would single her home. Not to be outdone, the Tigers came right back with a leadoff double from Izzy Akelaitis and one out later, Marissa Christman delivered a sacrifice fly to retie the game at 2-2.

Both Bangor starter Joelyn Silfies and the Tigers’ Balliet kept their opponents off the board until the sixth inning, when Bangor was able to get something going when Langdon singled with one out and Fey doubled into the right center field gap to give Bangor a 3-2 edge.

After an intentional walk to Silfies, Emma Etzkorn singled to plate Fey and when the throw from right field was wild, Silfies followed her home to give the Slaters breathing room with a 5-2 edge.

“I feel like we gave them a few too many outs out there, and that we could have gotten out of the inning a little earlier,” said Zimmerman. “It wasn’t in the cards for us to come away with gold. You have to credit them (Bangor) because they played a heck of a game.”

Northwestern didn’t go down without a fight, however, as it answered in its half of the sixth. A leadoff double by Olivia Stofflet led to a Tigers’ run when Balliet followed with an RBI single to center to cut the Bangor lead to 5-3.

One out later, McGinley walked, but Langdon came through with a big defensive play at shortstop to end the inning without any further damage.

It looked like Northwestern would stage one of its usual comebacks in the seventh, but Bangor was able to fight it off and strand runners on the corners when Silfies ended the game with a strikeout.

“I think the girls automatically assumed that because we won it last year and we were back here again, that maybe they were going to walk through this and be able to come home with gold,” Zimmerman said. “You have to come to work, and you have to make sure that you are able to rebound from this and it doesn’t happen again.”

THE ROAD AHEAD ... Northwestern will return to play in the District 11 Class 4A playoffs, which begin next week. The Tigers - who reached the district final a year ago before falling to Bethlehem Catholic - will more than likely face Lehighton (6-14) in their opening game on Tuesday.

FAB FRESHMAN ... In the semifinals, the Tigers’ McGinley led off the bottom of the seventh with a walk and a stolen base, and then scored the tying run in a two-run rally that led Northwestern to a walk-off 5-4 win over Palisades. Against Bangor, the freshman left fielder had two singles and drew a walk.