In the course of 26 hours, Elizabethtown's softball team's position went from perilous to powerful.
Fresh off an 11-1 victory Wednesday over Cedar Crest that earned the Bears a playoff for the championship of Section Two of the Lancaster-Lebanon League — and a berth in Saturday's L-L League playoff carnival — Elizabethtown (17-3) dethroned two-time defending section champion Solanco, 4-2, Thursday at Garrett Park in Willow Street.
"We have a relatively young team," sophomore catcher Caryn Bailey said, "and to win the section is just huge.
"We knew we had it in us to do it," she continued. "It was just a matter of heart and keeping our heads in it."
Junior Rachel Bair headed E-town in the right direction, singling in Leigh Miller with the Bears' first run.
Sophomore Mariah Keener knocked in a pair of runs with a third-inning triple and a seventh-inning single and the Bears went ahead to stay in the sixth inning on a pair of two-base errors.
The damage that inning went beyond the unearned run when Golden Mares' starting pitcher Mallory Rutledge, bearing down to escape further damage, reached back for a little extra on a 1-2 pitch to Bair, landed awkwardly and injured her knee.
She was able to walk off the field, leaning on her father and Solanco's trainer, but her immediate status for the playoffs is unknown.
Solanco (13-4) struck first on Jess Miller's RBI triple to deep left in the first inning.
E-town went ahead in the third when shortstop Kate Miller bobbled Abby Fuhrman's grounder and Keener ripped her triple to the alley in left.
"I knew that I had the opportunity to help my teammates out," said Keener. "I just kind of saw the pitch and went with it."
Jess Miller knocked in Anna Neff in the Mares' third to even the score at 2-2, but Solanco stranded two baserunners that inning and two more in the fourth as E-town sophomore pitcher Katie Dunkleberger dodged danger.
Solanco had eight hits Thursday, as many as the previous two games' total against Dunkleberger, but left nine on base.
Taking a 3-2 lead into the seventh inning, the Bears posted an insurance run when Keener singled through the drawn-in infield, plating Jamie Ahern.
Annville-Cleona 6, Pequea Valley 5: Freshman Darian Brenner placed a 2-out single just beyond first base and just inside the right field foul line and Crys Edris scampered home from third with the game-winning run as A-C (15-4) wrested the Section Four title back from Pequea Valley Thursday at Garrett Park.
The Braves (14-5) had won three section titles in a row coming into this season, breaking a nine-year stranglehold by A-C, and set the pace for most of the season before being tracked down by their rivals in the final week.
Edris's 2-hitter in a 4-0 victory over the Braves on Monday forced Thursday's playoff.
Annville-Cleona appeared to have taken command in the sixth inning Thursday as Cassie Ernst's RBI single and Janelle Bowman's RBI triple gave A-C a 5-2 lead.
But Emily Houck hit a run-scoring single in the Braves' seventh and Kayla Wallace's 2-run single tied the game.
In the bottom of the seventh Edris worked a one-out walk. Losing pitcher Kasey Williams got a strikeout, but the snap throw to first went by the bag, then through the rightfielder backing the play and Edris rambled to third.
Brenner hacked at the first pitch, slung it to the perfect spot and hustled into history.
Playoff pairings: Thursday's results mean the pairings are set for the quarterfinal round of the L-L playoffs, Saturday at Garrett Park.
Pequea Valley (14-5) plays Elizabethtown (17-3) at 10 a.m.
Section One runne-rup Hempfield (13-6) faces Section Three champ Donegal (16-3) at noon.
Solanco takes on Annville-Cleona at 2 p.m. and Section Three runner-up Manheim Central (14-6) confronts unbeaten Section One champion Warwick (20-0) at 4 p.m.