Mount de Sales exploded for nine runs in two of the final four innings off Seton Keough ace pitcher Kelly Lynch and emerged with a come-from-behind 10-5 victory in an Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference softball semifinal Thursday.
The visiting third-seeded Sailors (14-5) earned a berth for the third straight year in the IAAM finals on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Stevenson University.
Mount de Sales will play top-seeded Archbishop Spalding (15-5).
It will be the first time since 2012 Mount de Sales and Seton Keough have not met in the finals.
Last year, Seton Keough rolled to an 8-1 victory, but in 2013, Mount de Sales rallied from a 5-0 deficit for a 7-6 victory.
This year's semifinal comeback wasn't as dramatic, but it was equally effective.
Freshman shortstop Karlee Stocksdale went 2-for-3 with three RBIs and two runs scored to lead the Sailors.
Junior Emily Fitzsimmons had a run-scoring single and was the winning pitcher. She scattered 12 hits and struck out six.
Jillian Boyd (3 RBIs) and Amber Cosgrove had three hits, and Imani Dawson had two hits for Seton Keough.
Mount de Sales scored a run in the first inning when Stocksdale scored on a wild pitch after a leadoff walk, but Lynch, who will pitch at Catholic University next year, retired the next nine batters, including the first one in the top of the fourth.
But, trailing 3-1, the Sailors next seven batters reached base and when the dust settled they led, 6-3.
Kellie Schinzel walked and moved to third on a single to right by Hannah Cimerola to get the rally started. Schinzel stole third and scored on a single to right by Fitzsimmons that advanced pinch-runner Chelsie Marsh to third.
She scored on an infield roller by Stefani Senkus to tie the game and freshman Abby Fontana singled home the go-ahead run.
Maggie Maguire reached on a bunt single and Stocksdale drove home the fifth run with an infield single.
Taylor Forgen made it 6-3 with a sacrifice fly.
Seton Keough didn't go quietly.
In the fifth inning, the Gators scored twice after a single by Dawson, double by Cosgrove and two-run single from Boyd, making it 6-5.
After an error and walk, the Gators had the bases loaded with one out when Fitzsimmons got out of her toughest jam of the game.
Sammi Glover hit a one-hopper to third baseman Cimerola, who turned a third-to-home-to-first double play, with catcher Abby Zalucki making the pivot to first.
"That was beautiful. Hannah got rid of it quick and the catcher got rid of it quick," Mount de Sales coach Pete Waskiewicz said.
Seton Keough assistant coach Alex Montoya thought it was the turning point.
"I was telling the girl that hit it, six inches one way or the other and that is in left field," Montoya said.
Fitzsimmons was grateful for the defensive execution in a clutch situation.
"Something has got to happen," Fitzsimmons said she thought to herself. "We needed that right there ... that was timely."
Fitzsimmons, who was on the mound last year in the championship game, is happy to return.
"It's incredible. We worked so hard for this, and it's amazing," she said. "We went through the same thing last year where nobody expected us to make it and we pulled through."
Seton Keough didn't score again, and Mount de Sales tacked on four runs in the top of the sixth.
A pair of errors was followed by an RBI bunt single by Maguire and two-run single from Stocksdale.
The teams split during the regular season, with each team winning at home.
"We have been hitting the ball well the past two weeks and we beat them, 6-5, two weeks ago, so we knew we had to keep on hitting," Waskiewicz said. "If we didn't hit, we lose. That was the only way we were going to beat them was to get on top."
"They hit the ball well. You can't take that away from them," Seton Keough assistant coach Joe O'Malley said.
Mount de Sales also stole six bases.
"Our game plan was hopefully score more runs than we had to because they are a good hitting ball club and they are going to come back and catch us," Waskiewicz said.
Instead, it was the Sailors who did the catching up.
Seton Keough had built the early lead in the first on hits from Lynch, Cosgrove, Boyd and Sarah Minnis.
They could have had four runs, but Dawson was called out on appeal after missing third base.
"We didn't let that bother us. We answered right back," Montoya said.
But in the end, it was the Sailors who had the final answer.
"We never give up," Fitzsimmons said. "We haven't given up all season and we just kept that same mentality."