The Lady Tigers are never the type of team to shy away from adversity, so even when they were down 7-0 in the latter innings of the PIAA semifinal game against Blue Mountain on Tuesday, there was still a feeling of hope among the players and fans.

After all, it was their first appearance in the state semis since 2007 and the Tigers have the offensive firepower to break through in games. But they were unable to overcome one of the tougher pitchers in the area and fell to the Eagles 7-0 at Patriot’s Park in Allentown.

“You have to give them all the credit in the world. They did a great job and they hit the ball and made plays in the field when they had to,” said Tiger head coach Josh Zimmerman of the Blue Mountain Eagles. “I hope they can bring some gold home to District 11.”

Blue Mountain pitcher Marla Freiwald held Northwestern Lehigh (22-5) to three runs in the District 11 championship and as good as she was in that game, she was even better in the PIAA semifinal game. The junior pitcher finished with a complete game win giving up three hits and one walk to go with five strikeouts.

The Tigers were not able to get a runner on base until the fourth inning when Sage Toman was hit by a pitch with one out. Toman stole second but was stranded there. Freiwald went on to set down five in a row to go through the fifth inning.

Toman came within a couple feet of giving the Tigers an early lead in that at-bat when she lifted a long fly ball down the left field line that landed just foul at the base of the fence.

Northwestern starting pitcher Emma Freeman, who threw five shutout innings against the Eagles in the district finals, was not quite at her best, but was awfully close. The freshman pitcher worked through a first-and-third, one out jam in the third inning, and did so with a key strikeout of Lindsay Gibson and the help of a fine defensive play by Rylee McGinley in center field.

Freeman had her own string of six straight retired until the sixth inning opened with back-to-back singles from Gibson and Elle Walasavage that were nothing more than well placed bloop singles. Freiwald, who also serves as the team’s cleanup hitter, doubled to center to drive in both runners and a batter later, she scored on an RBI single by Paige Bergen to make it 3-0.

Zimmerman went to Payton Neumoyer at that point, hoping to put out the fire that was starting to burn out of control. That is where the timely hitting of Blue Mountain came in and Olivia Labe greeted Neumoyer with a third bloop single, this time to center.

Neumoyer had the fire knocked down with a strikeout and a groundout that moved runners to second and third before Avery Hudock then smashed a grounder to Marissa Christman at third and the ball took a bad bounce, coming up off Christman’s shoulder and trickling onto the outfield grass, which allowed both runners to score. Anna Loughlin then followed with a home run to left field to make it 7-0.

“We were up against an outstanding pitcher in Freiwald, and she did a great job of keeping us off balance the entire time and we weren’t able to break through until the later innings,” said Zimmerman.

The Tigers looked to mount one of their big comebacks starting in the bottom of the sixth. A fielding error allowed Shelby Mitman to reach base to lead off the inning and two outs later, Toman worked a walk to put two runners on. Freiwald was able to pitch through the jam when she got Izzy Akelaitis to pop out to third to end the inning.

In the bottom of the seventh, senior Marissa Christman led off with a grounder into left field for what would be the final hit of her high school career. Abby Dunstan hit a long fly ball to center but Walasavage was able to race back to the fence and make the catch. A fielder’s choice erased Christman but left Freeman on first base and Josie Wehr followed with a single up the middle to put runners on first and second with two outs. Freiwald ended the inning by getting Mitman to pop up to second base.

Blue Mountain (24-3) will play for the state title Thursday at Nittany Lion Softball Park at Penn State when they face Montour.