This year, there was plenty of suspense. The result, however, remained the same.

The Hillbillies will play for their fifth straight Section VI championship Saturday after defeating the Tonawanda Timberwolves 7-6 in eight innings in a Class B semifinal Tuesday at Fredonia High School.

“I just want to see the girls have fun. I want to see them be successful and have fun at the same time,” said Fredonia head coach Joe Pucciarelli. “When you win a game like that, of course it’s going to be fun. It’s great to see them work for something, accomplish it, and be able to enjoy it afterward.”

No. 4 Fredonia (17-3) did not make things easy on itself Tuesday. No. 8 Tonawanda (9-6) scored four runs in the top of the first inning before the Hillbillies even came to bat. While many other teams might have let that get them down, the championship pedigree of the Hillbillies showed itself Tuesday.

OBSERVER Photo by Ashleigh Brown Fredonia's Kara Harrington delivers a pitch during Tuesday's semifinal.

“We started down 4-0, but it was calm as can be,” said Fredonia captain Naomi Muck, the team’s starting shortstop. “Everybody was up. It’s like we were never losing. There was no pressure. We know how to do it, we know how to get there.”

Fredonia got a run back in the bottom of the first inning, but left a pair of runners stranded on base. Pitcher McKella Hodkin settled in after a rough first inning, only allowing one run over the next three frames to keep Fredonia in the game. Still, entering the bottom of the fourth inning, Tonawanda held a 5-2 lead.

“There was not a doubt in my mind we could do it. We just had to keep at it,” Pucciarelli said.

With two runners on base, but two outs, Muck came through with the big hit Fredonia needed to get back in the game. A single to right field scored both runners to pull Fredonia within a run. Then, what appeared to be a harmless groundball to second base led to a wild throw to first that brought Muck in to score the game-tying run. All of a sudden, after three two-out runs, Fredonia was back even at 5-5 after four innings of play.

In the next half-inning, Tonawanda reclaimed the lead on a two-out single to center field, but a flawless throw from center fielder Jenna Fryberger cut down the trailing runner at the plate. The Hillbillies went down in order in the bottom of the fifth, but were still within a run, 6-5.

It was then that Pucciarelli made the move to Kara Harrington, a seventh-grader, to take over in the pitcher’s circle. She rewarded her coach’s trust in her with a shutout sixth inning, including a pair of strikeouts to finish off the frame.

Fredonia failed to score in the bottom half of the sixth inning, but Harrington breezed through another 1-2-3 inning to give her team a chance to even the score in the bottom of the seventh.

With the top of the order due up, Fredonia had exactly who it wanted up with the game on the line: Naomi Muck.

“It’s nerve-wracking, but you’ve got to let that go. You can’t hear anything when you’re up there,” Muck said. “I knew what I had to do. I’ve been in the position before. It’s my job as a captain, as a leader — I’ve got to get it going somehow. … I saw the pitch I wanted and I swung at it.”

Fredonia’s captain ripped a line drive into the right-center field gap for a leadoff double. Fryberger advanced Muck to third on a groundout, then Callie Draggett hit a sacrifice fly to deep left field to tie the game.

Then it was back in the hands of Harrington, and the seventh-grader delivered another shutout inning — her third straight scoreless frame with the game in the balance — to bring the Hillbillies to bat needing just one run to win the game.

McKenna Crawford led off the bottom of the eighth inning by reaching on a throwing error. The errant throw to first went back to the fence and Crawford wound up at second base. Anna Delcamp followed with a sacrifice bunt, but the throw went to third base in an attempt to cut down the lead runner. Crawford beat the throw easily and found herself on third with nobody out.

Then, up came Gia Muscarella, a newcomer to the varsity program this year, with a chance to send Fredonia back to the championship game. She put the ball in play with a hard-hit groundball to the right side. Crawford took off on contact and slid into home plate safely without a throw. She jumped in the air after sliding in safely, then embraced Fryberger and Muck before the rest of the Hillbillies mobbed her in front of the dugout to celebrate the thrilling victory.

Harrington earned the win for Fredonia after throwing three hitless innings. Only one batter out of 10 she faced reached base, and it came on an error.

Tonawanda pitcher Samantha Heim, a SUNY Potsdam commit, was dealt the loss after pitching 7-plus innings with seven runs (four earned) allowed. She allowed eight hits, three of which went to Muck.

Fredonia now advances to Saturday’s title game at 4 p.m. at Grand Island High School. The Hillbillies will face Alden, which defeated Allegany-Limestone in Tuesday’s other semifinal. Fredonia won its fourth consecutive championship a year ago on a Saturday afternoon at Grand Island High School with a 7-5 victory over Alden.

“A lot of the girls haven’t been in this position yet, but we’ve got to keep calm,” Muck said. “… The program has been here multiple times. We know what we need to do.”