HERSHEY — To say that the Greencastle-Antrim batters liked the offerings of West Chester East pitcher Ava Ferri would be a gross understatement.

The Blue Devils rocked the Vikings’ ace pitcher for 17 hits in 3.1 innings of work on Monday afternoon at Hershey H.S. and G-A roared into the PIAA Class 5A championship game with a totally dominant 13-0 win over W.C. East in a lopsided semifinal game.

Kindal Rice

In the PIAA championship game, slated for 4 p.m. Friday at Penn State’s Nittany Lion Softball Park, G-A (22-3) will face Penn-Trafford (23-3), which defeated West Allegheny 8-2 Monday.

How good was the Greencastle offense?

— The Blue Devils belted four home runs — Kaidyn Zimmerman, Erika Hoover, Kylie Kerns and Kindal Rice.

— They had two doubles and  a slew of hard-hit singles.

— G-A sent 12 batters to the plate in the top of the third and nine crossed the plate.

“I had coach (Don) Cordell throw some BP for them before we left today, so I guess he got them ready,” G-A coach Mark DeCarli said. “The girls were a little fired up after only scoring three runs against North Pocono (in a quarterfinal win) and they took it out on them today.”

Rice said, “We were all nervous early, but we play OK when we’re nervous. And then we let it all loose.”

Zimmerman got it started in the top of the second, crushing a pitch from Ferri over the fence in center. Two batters later, Rice sent one flying over the fence in left for a 2-0 lead.

Erika Hoover

“The first pitch to me was right down the middle, and I usually hit the first pitch anyway,” Rice said. “Her pitching was at the perfect speed.”

Caroline Logsdon led off the third with her second base hit, and that ignited a huge uprising.

Logsdon said, “We’re all pretty good at adjusting to different pitching speeds, and we’re used to having big innings, too.”

Meadow Gambacurta lined a pitch to fence in right-center to bring Logsdon home and Kerns followed with a line drive that kept going and said goodbye to the fence before it finally stopped rolling on the other side for a two-run bomb.

Kerns said, “I knew I hit it hard, but I didn’t think it was a home run — I didn’t think it was high enough. It took about one at-bat for everyone to get timed up and then we were on it.”

The Blue Devils weren’t satisfied with a 5-0 lead. G-A loaded the bases with one out on hits by Hoover, Rice and Bailey Leckron, then Paiton Gordon dropped a single into left-center to score two runs. After an out, Logsdon blooped a hit to right that scored another pair of runs.

Gambacurta nearly took off Ferri’s head with a vicious line drive hit for an RBI and Kerns ripped a double to right-center to score her and put up the 1th run.

DeCarli said, “That was the best hitting game we’ve had against a playoff-caliber team. Getting 18 hits is pretty impressive, and those home runs were deep.”

Meanwhile, Greencastle pitcher Kiersten Swain was cruising — she retired the first 11 Vikings batters before walking Ferri and allowing a bloop double by Caelyn Rodriguez in the fourth inning. She finished with a two-hitter, walking one and striking out 10 — including putting up three K’s in an inning three times.

“Kiersten was on fire: she’s been really good in the playoffs,” DeCarli said. “She was like the (regular-season) Kiersten, mowing them down.”

Swain said, “I’m proud of all my teammates for all that good hitting. They gave me a good cushion. I thought my changeups were pretty good, and my drop curve and two-seam (fastball) worked well, too.”

Greencastle added two more runs in the fourth, starting off when Hoover blasted her first homer of the season to lead off. After hits by Aliyah Masser and Gordon, Ferri was replaced. Reliever Mia Jones walked Zhen Reuter to load the bases, then forced in a run with a walk to pinch-hitter Lydia Pryke.

So now the question is, can the Blue Devils put together that kind of game Friday in the championship?

“If we play this way, we can do it,” Logsdon said.

DeCarli said, “We lost to Red Land (in the District 3 semifinals), but I’ll gladly trade that for a shot at a state title. The girls probably got tired of me saying this, but I kept telling them they were good enough to win states. I had to make sure they believed it. When we put it all together, we are pretty tough.”

They certainly were Monday. They just have to do it one more time.

NOTES: The game will be broadcast on PCN Select live and on delayed broadcast at 11 p.m. … Logsdon was 3-for-3 with 2 RBIs and 3 stolen bases and Rice was 3-for-4 … Gambacurta, Kerns, Hoover, Leckron and Gordon all produced two hits … Swain needed only 72 pitches and 52 were for strikes … Greencastle’s only previous trip to a PIAA final in softball came in 2009, when they beat Bethlehem Catholic, 1-0, in nine innings.