Aubrey Steiner had been there before. In fact, she was there two other times.

This time, the fourth time was the charm.

Steiner and her Zephyr teammates won the program’s first district title since 2009 when they rolled to a 15-5 victory over Southern Lehigh recently in the Class 5A title game at Patriot’s Park. The senior led her team with three RBIs.

“It’s a feeling like no other to come out with a win after a few years of losses,” said Steiner, who was hitting .349 with 14 RBIs. before states. “It felt rewarding with all the hard work the team put in over the last few years. For me personally, this felt good with all that I pushed myself to do.”

Head coach Jeff Vivian anticipated that his team would be back in the final even after a roller coaster year.

“For who came back from that Pocono Mountain East game last year, we handed out the index cards for goals for this year. Every one of those girls had a District 11 Championship as their top goal. You can tell that this group, with what happened the last two years, the loss to Northampton in 2022 and the Pocono Mountain East loss in 2023, were not going to let that happen again.

“You could tell that the loss to PM East was a tough pill for us, losing a lead like that, having some really bad calls go against you, it was a tough pill. I think the thing they learned the most, was to stay together. That 2023 team, we had drifted away from being a team toward the end. You have 18 wins and you lose sight of the work that got you there and ‘hero ball’ started to set in. We as coaches just couldn’t get rid of that going into the playoff run. And this group took that to heart. They stuck together during the ups and downs of this year.”

The team battled through the loss of outfielder Hannah Bundra, who suffered a broken arm in the first scrimmage. Leadoff hitter and second baseman Josie Schultz was then lost with a broken collarbone.

However, Bundra returned and Vivian moved her to the leadoff spot, where she became an igniter. From there, Vivian moved Steiner to the sixth hole, and she hiked her average.

“There were times when we weren’t playing up to our potential, but they never lost focus on what their goals were. All of a sudden at the end of the season, we got Hannha back. We moved her to leadoff and her short and slap game [had] set the tone in the playoffs.”

Vivian also cited steady production from Kate Yadush along with Nya Brown, Molly McFetridge, Paige Tacker, Siena Meli, Bella Muth, and Morgan Laub, He cited Laub’s consistency on the mound.

Yadush was hitting .534 with a team-high 25 RBIs, and Bundra was hitting .615 after districts. Meli was at .333 with 18 RBIs, second on the club in that category.

A senior, Yadush relished the moment.

“Winning districts was absolutely amazing,” beamed Yadush. “It really felt great to see results after putting in so much work as a team this season. We knew we had it in us to win, and we were glad to see it go our way this year after losing so many years in a row.”