WEXFORD — Heartbreak plays no favorites.

Knoch dealt it to Montour in last Wednesday's WPIAL first-round softball playoff when Jessi Reed's home run dispatched the Spartans 6-5.

In a Class AAA quarterfinal showdown Monday at North Allegheny, it was the Knights who felt the sting of late-inning drama.

Thomas Jefferson's Emily Scheidter stroked a two-out base hit down the right-field line, scoring Rachael Bowers in the bottom of the seventh inning of a 3-2 victory.

Alyssa Fairman's base hit proved just as vital to TJ's win as Scheidter's single. It was Fairman who kept the inning alive with a base hit that advanced Bowers into scoring position just before Scheidter's at-bat.

“I am impressed with our effort, but Knoch played a fantastic game,” said TJ coach Heidi Karcher. “They hit Lacie (Lautner) hard. This was one of the toughest games we've had this year, along with an early-season game against Belle Vernon (a 1-0 win April 5).”

The Knights trailed 2-1 entering the top of the seventh inning, but with runners at first and second and two outs, Sydney Natili drove a Lautner pitch deep to left. The ball glanced off the glove of Sydney Flinn and as she retrieved it at the base of the fence, Erin Luffy crossed home plate to tie the game. Chalee Durand was also waved home, but was thrown out to end the inning.

“You have to play all seven innings and we did tonight, battling back in the seventh,” said Knoch coach Tim Knappenberger.

Knoch's Celia Knappenberger kept a potent Jaguar offense off the scoreboard for five innings. Up to that point, Knappenberger had scored the game's lone run on a double steal in the top of the fifth inning.

Knappenberger surrendered just four hits through the first five frames and had set the Jaguars down in order in the fourth and fifth.

She allowed a leadoff single to Bowers in the sixth. A sacrifice bunt moved Bowers to second base. Following a four-pitch walk to Scheidter, Megan Fitzgerald singled home Bowers to tie the game while the play ended with Scheidter getting thrown out at third base.

Knappenberger walked the next hitter, Haleigh Karcher, which ended her outing in the circle. Coach Knappenberger brought in senior Reed.

“Celia doesn't throw 60 miles-per-hour, but she has a screwball, a nasty curve, drop pitch and a change-up,” Coach Knappenberger said. “She can throw them for strikes and used them all today. But in the sixth inning, she wasn't throwing them for strikes and it was time for a change.”

Reed gave up a run-scoring single — charged to Knappenberger — off the bat of Lautner to give TJ (16-1) a 2-1 lead and that was the deficit the Knights erased in the next half inning.

Lautner struck out seven in the win, moving her record this season to 12-1.

“We faced her two years ago in the playoffs,” said Coach Knappenberger of a 3-2 Knoch loss. “We told the girls today to not get behind in the count. Go after the first strike you like. I knew Coach Karcher likes to call a lot of outside pitches and some of our hits, the girls took it that way.”

Though the Knights (16-4) missed out on their bid to reach the district semifinals and a possible berth in the state playoffs, the 2016 season was a historic one.

“The 16 wins are the most (in a single season) in Knoch history,” said Coach Knappenberger. “The girls know that and they have a lot to be proud of.”

Knoch 000 010 1 — 2 6 1

Thom. Jefferson 000 002 1 — 3 9 2

W: Lacie Lautner 7 IP (7K, 0BB). L: Jessi Reed 1 IP (0K, 1BB).

Knoch (16-4): Sydney Natili 2B RBI, Avery Keller 2-1B, Abigail Black 1B, Celia Knappenberger 2-1B R, Erin Luffy R

Thomas Jefferson (16-1): Lindsey Kalup 2B, Sydney Flinn 1B, Rachael Bowers 1B 2R, Alyssa Fairman 2-1B, Emily Scheidter 1B RBI, Megan Fitzgerald 1B R RBI, Haleigh Karcher 1B, Lacie Lautner 1B RBI