GREENCASTLE — Kiersten Swain put together a dominant outing in the circle and one big inning helped Greencastle-Antrim advance to the District 3 Class 5A softball semifinals on Tuesday afternoon at home.

Swain’s 1-hitter cooled off Twin Valley in a 6-0 Greencastle victory.

Kiersten Swain

The No. 2 seed Blue Devils (18-4) will now face No. 14 Northern York (15-7) in a semifinal game Wednesday at home at 4:30. G-A also qualified for the PIAA Tournament, while the Raiders were eliminated with a 16-5 record.

“It was a pretty complete game, and it’s just nice to move on,” Greencastle coach Mark DeCarli said. “We did what we needed to do to get to states.”

Swain allowed only one hit, a bunt single in the top of the fourth inning by Ella Herbst. She walked none, hit one batter and struck out 9. Swain threw just 77 pitches and 59 were for strikes.

“She looked really good,” DeCarli said. “It was a little humid and she got a little tired at the end, but she hung in there.”

Maggie Stoltzfus was the Twin Valley pitcher. She threw two scoreless innings, but the Blue Devils pounced on her in the third inning.

Lydia Pryke walked and went to third on a double to left by Allison Logsdon. After an out, Swain lifted a fly ball for a sacrifice fly and the game’s first run. Kylie Kerns drove a ball to center for an RBI single and a base hit by Kindal Rice and a walk to Erika Hoover loaded the bases.

Minnie Gambacurta then hit a double to left field that cleared the bases and made it 5-0.

In the bottow of the fifth inning, Kylie Kerns led off by blasting her fifth home run of the season to left field.

DeCarli said, “Their pitcher was pretty good, but the second time through the lineup we did better. We only had six hits, but we put the ball in play and made them make plays. And we got some key hits.”

NOTES: Starting catcher Brooklyn Sanchez will not be able to play in the playoffs for G-A … A PIAA rule is that if a player transfers after their sophomore year, they must sit out that year’s playoffs … Danika Murphy took Sanchez’s place behind the plate … “Danika did a great job and we’ll really need her,” DeCarli said … Greencastle spilt 2 games against Northern York this year, losing 13-6 early and winning 4-3.