PHOTO PROVIDED The Jersey Shore junior softball team poses for a photo with its championship banner after defeating Lewisburg in the Section 3 final. Shore won 7-6.

TURBOTVILLE – The Jersey Shore Area Junior Softball All-Stars have trailed in every postseason game. They are also Section 3 champions.

Haley Kitner’s 3-run go-ahead double capped a 5-run fifth inning rally in a 7-6 win over Lewisburg Saturday at the Moser Complex. The win put Shore into the Pennsylvania state tournament, back here this upcoming week.

Amelia Thomas struck out 10 and allowed two earned runs in the complete-game victory. She also went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a double.

Thomas, like several teammates, plays not only multiple sports but on multiple softball teams from school to travel ball and Little League. But she said this team, this postseason, this game, was the most intense as the final one in a best-of-3 series.

“If we lost, then we’re done.” said Thomas.

Kitner felt it as well, entering the bottom of the fifth inning down 6-2. But Layla Hornberger reached on an error before Thomas’ double. Annabelle Fry walked, Allie Cimini had an RBI infield single, and then Lewisburg intentionally walked Payton Pennycoff to load the bases with two out for Kitner.

“I closed my eyes as soon as I saw the ball hit the bat,” said Kitner. “I thought she caught the ball and stopped running. But then I saw she didn’t catch the ball.”

Kitner’s blast got away from center field as it scored Fry, Cimini, and Pennycoff for the lead.

Thomas retired six straight hitters to end the win, recovering from four early hit batters as Lewisburg repeatedly crowded the plate by standing midfoot over the inside batter’s box line.

“I hit them, and it scared them off, but not on purpose,” said Thomas. “After that, they got into the gist and backed off a little.”

These rallies are perhaps too common for Shore, which spent much of a Friday morning practice and Saturday morning pregame prepping for a better start. They trailed Williamsport by five and by three in their District 12 wins. They trailed Lewisburg by five in a 7-6, 8-inning win on Wednesday, and by eight in a 9-7 loss Thursday in Game 2.

Things looked up in the first inning Saturday morning, as Thomas and Fry led off with single and a walk, but a double-play on an infield fly rule sequence preceded a Kitner groundout where she claimed in vain about the batted ball hitting her foot.

Lewisburg went up 2-0 with a two-run Lacey Tillson double in the third. Thomas singled home Lucy Brigandi in the third, though later wasted a bases-loaded opportunity. Pennycoff tripled and scored on an error in the fourth to tie it.

But Lewisburg answered with a four-run fifth inning that saw two Shore errors allow for RBI singles by Tymber Jamieson and Ruby Mitchell and a 6-2 lead.

Shore has a first-day bye in the five-team double-elimination state tournament, which runs July 8-12 at the Moser Complex. Shore will play the Section 7 vs. Section 8 winner on Wednesday, July 9 at 3.

The state champ advances to the 10-team East regionals July 17-21 at Wilkes University. The Junior Softball World Series runs July 27-Aug. 2 in Kirkland, Wash.