ELKHART – One of the oldest adages in sports is about how hard it truly is to beat a team three times in the same season.

The Warsaw softball team found out just how true that cliche can be Thursday night.

The third time proved to be the charm for Goshen as the RedHawks topped the Tigers 9-3 in a semifinal contest of the Class 4-A Elkhart Central Sectional.

Goshen, which lost both Northern Lakes Conference meetings to Warsaw during the regular season, won the matchup which was postponed by rain Wednesday night.

The RedHawks, now 13-13, will face NLC foe Northridge (19-7) in the title game at 6 p.m. Friday at Central.  Northridge rallied from an early 5-0 deficit to beat Central 7-5 in the first semifinal Thursday night. The Raiders had lost 4-1 to Central during the regular season. Goshen split with Northridge during the regular season, winning 4-3 in their first meeting and then losing 13-0 in the second NLC game.

The Central Sectional champion will then host No. 1 Penn Tuesday night in a one-game regional. The Kingsmen, who are ranked No. 18 nationally, beat Adams 10-0 in five innings Thursday night behind a perfect game from Louisville recruit Danielle Watson to win the Penn Sectional title. Penn, which is now 26-1, was state runner-up a year ago.

“As coaches, we knew how hard it is to beat someone three times in a season,” said Warsaw coach Kevin Dishman. “It’s a difficult thing to do. Kudos to Goshen tonight. They came out ready. They hit the ball and they got us.

“I credit my girls. They never gave up and the attitudes were good the whole night. We just didn’t get the hits when we had opportunities. We only had four hits.”

Warsaw, which closes out its season at 11-12, simply could not find the key hit versus Goshen. The Tigers loaded the bases in the top of the first frame, only to fail to score.

Warsaw. which beat Goshen 10-5  and  13-7, finished with just four hits. The Tigers plated three tallies in the second inning to take a 3-1 lead. Sophomore Courtney Chookie drove in a run with a groundout and freshman Izzy Dittmar cracked a two-run double for the Tigers.

Goshen answered in the home half of the second with a huge five-run rally to lead 6-3. The outburst started on a dropped third strike with no one on base and one out. The RedHawks then put together five straight hits, including an RBI single by junior AnaMarie Ramirez and a two-run single by junior Alexia Nettrouer.

Goshen added three insurance runs in the sixth frame. Nettrouer had an RBI single and senior Jordan Nemeth a two-run single for the 9-3 final.

The Tigers simply could not solve Kate Atkinson. The Goshen senior pitcher avoided trouble, despite walking six batters and hitting one, all in the first three innings.  She settled down nicely after her first pitch of the game sailed over her catcher’s head by a couple of feet.

“We had opportunities early, but did not take advantage of them,” Dishman said. “It was huge for us not to score in the first inning when we loaded the bases. Those are moments that we look to.

“She (Atkinson) was effectively wild tonight. Give her credit. She did a great job. We never got comfortable in there against her tonight.

“Our killer was that pitch in the second when they reached first on the strikeout. It all just kind of snowballed after that.”

The quartet of Dittmar, junior Saylor Bradley, Chookie and senior Kalie Keener each had a hit for the Tigers.

Sophomore Chookie went the distance in the circle to absorb the loss. She allowed 10 hits, while striking out six and walking one.

Atkinson finished with eight strikeouts and six walks. Elkah DeVoe, Goshen’s leadoff hitter, led her team with three hits.

Warsaw says good-bye to six seniors in Keener, Jordan McClone, Lauren Shaffner, Morgan Ashtari, Abby Glass and Riley Bloemendaal. All six were in the strarting lineup Thursday night.