NEW BETHLEHEM — It wasn’t so much about upholding its No. 3 seed that was the challenge for the Redbank Valley Lady Bulldogs softball team in Tuesday’s District 9 Class 2A quarterfinal opener against Moniteau at the New Bethlehem Little League Field.

Considering the sixth-seeded Lady Warriors dealt head coach Lee Miller’s squad a 13-3 loss back in April and they put up three runs in the top of the third for the initial lead, the Lady Bulldogs had some work to do.

And remarkably, they did it almost entirely after two outs, scoring eight unanswered runs for a 8-3 win that puts the Lady Bulldogs into Thursday’s District 9 Class 2A semifinal against No. 2 seed Brockway at Heindl Field at 2 p.m.

The semifinal winners land in Monday’s final also at Heindl at a time to be announced.

“I’m not going to lie. Before the brackets came out, this was the one team I didn’t want to face in the first round,” said Miller, whose team improved to 13-6. “When it happened, well I thought, ‘Well, here we go.’ Moniteau always plays us tough. They always do.”

Brockway, which had a first-round bye, lost to the Lady Bulldogs 6-1 on April 25, two days after Miller’s team lost to Moniteau.

“I just told the girls that Brockway will be using the same motivation that we used against Moniteau,” Miller said. “We have use our heads and come in focused like we were tonight. If we do that, I think we’ll be all right. We just can’t take them lightly.

“They were definitely locked in tonight. Moniteau roughed us up earlier in the season when we were down a couple girls, but we didn’t play well either. So we were really focused tonight and hopefully that’ll carry us into Thursday.”

After a two-out Lady Bulldogs error opened the door for Moniteau’s three-run top of the third that saw Alex Stewart single home the first round and Alyssa Thompson triple in two more, the Lady Bulldogs went to work.

The first five runs came in the third and fourth innings in rallies that began with two outs on nobody on base. In the third Quinn White blasted a solo homer into the trees beyond the left-field fence. After a walk to Braylee Yeany, Keyauna Schimp doubled her to third. Both came home when Moniteau shortstop Lily Staab misplayed Alara Altobelli’s grounder.

In the fourth with two outs, Bella Orr reached on an infield single and moved to second on a throwing error before White doubled off the right-center field fence to plate Orr. Yeany tripled into the left-field corner to drive in White for a 5-3 lead.

Then in the fifth, the Lady Bulldogs loaded the bases on three straight one-out singles by Natalie Troup, Molly Evans and Avery Ortz. After a forceout at home on a grounder hit by Mackenzie Foringer, Orr delivered a clutch two-run single.

In all, the Lady Bulldogs finished with 13 hits and were 8-for-15 when batting with two outs.

“We started off hot this season hitting then went into a slump where we weren’t hitting well, but we had a lot of clutch hits tonight. They were very key,” Miller said.

The last and only non-two out run came in the sixth when Schimp lifted a home run over the fence in right-center with one out to put the Lady Bulldogs up by the final margin.

In the circle for the Lady Bulldogs, Foringer navigated her way through a six-hitter with four walks. She struck out seven and got some key outs with Moniteau threatening.

In the fourth with two runners on and one out, Foringer got Lexi Thomas to bunt into popup that she caught and turned into an inning-ending double play, the team’s second of the game.

Moniteau put the first two runners on in the top of the sixth with singles and after Foringer walked Emma Fitzingo to load the bases with one out, she got Thomas again on a foul popup to Schimp at first and then induced a lineout to centerfielder Alara Altobelli to end the inning.

“She told us before the game that her shoulder was a little sore, so we weren’t sure what we were going to get,” Miller said of Foringer. “She definitely struggled a little bit compared to normal, but she batted through it.”

Foringer’s fourth strikeout for the final out of the third landed her at 500 for her career. In the bottom of fourth, White’s double was the 100th career hit for the junior shortstop.

“They mean a lot to the program and it’s great they could get both milestones at home,” Miller said. “They’ve definitely set the foundation and made the bar high for the girls following them.”

Moniteau finished the season 7-11.

REDBANK VALLEY 8,

MONITEAU 3

Score By Innings

Moniteau 003 000 0 — 3

Redbank Valley 003 221 x — 8

Moniteau –3

Halle Beatty cf 4100, Lily Staab ss 3020, Alex Stewart 4111, Alyssa Thompson 2b-p 4012, Sydney DeMatteis c 4010, Madison Anderson cr 0000, Taylor Grace dp-2b 4010, Dani Wallace lf 3010, Emma Fitzingo 3b 1000, Lexi Thomas rf 2100, Greyson Rottman p 0000. Totals: 29-3-6-3.

Redbank Valley –8

Mackenzie Foringer p 4000, Bella Orr 3b 4122, Quinn White ss 4220, Braylee Yeany c 3021, Breanna Crawford cr 0100, Keyauna Schimp 1b 4221, Alara Altobelli cf 4000, Natalie Troup rf 3020, Molly Evans 2b 3110, Avery Ortz lf 3110. Totals: 32-8-11-6.

Errors: Moniteau 2, Redbank Valley 2. LOB: Moniteau 9, Redbank Valley 8. DP: Redbank Valley 2. 2B: White, Schimp. 3B: Yeany, Thompson. HR: White, Schimp. SB: Anderson.

Pitching

Moniteau: Rottman 5 1/3 IP, 13 H, 8 R, 6 ER, 3 SO, 2 BB; Thompson 2/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 SO, 0 BB.

Redbank Valley: Foringer 7 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 7 SO, 4 BB.

Winning pitcher: Foringer. Losing pitcher: Rottman.