Our man Phil Glatfelter was at Garrett Park in Willow Street on Tuesday to see if Donegal could get back to the District 3 Triple-A girls’ softball title game for the second year in a row. The Indians did. And they’ll meet a very familiar face in the finals. Here’s Phil’s story from Wednesday’s New Era:

For the second year in a row, Donegal is back in the District 3 Triple-A softball title game.

And the Indians will be facing a familiar foe — Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 3 rival Lampeter-Strasburg.

Donegal did its part to set up the all-league title game with Tuesday’s 1-0 victory over Hershey at Garrett Park in Willow Street.

L-S reached the final with a 2-0 triumph over Susquehannock at Heishmann Park in Newville.

The Section 3 foes will square off for the district title Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Harrisburg’s Brightbill Park.

It will be the third meeting of the season between the Section 3 neighbors, who split their two regular-season matchups. L-S won the section crown and repeated as league champions.

Last season, L-S and Donegal met four times. They split two regular-season meetings, but the Pioneers won a one-game playoff for the Section 3 title and beat Donegal again in the league final.

There’s obviously some history there.

“I think that our team is really excited to play L-S,” said Brielle Edgell, who scored the game’s only run against Hershey.

 “We know what to expect and they’ve seen us before, so it’s sort of that fun rivalry game. I think we’re all looking forward to it.”

“I think it just shows how strong our league actually is,” said Donegal pitcher Sami Houseal, who held Hershey to two hits with 10 strikeouts and retired the Trojans in order in four of her seven innings.

Like they did last year in their run to the state Triple-A championship, the Indians (21-4) employed a simple philosophy to defeat Hershey: “Grind it out, stay the course.”

They ground it out by scratching a run off Hershey ace Diana Von Stein, who nearly matched Houseal stat for stat through six innings.

Both pitchers allowed just two hits and struck out nine to that point.

And by staying the course — and not pressing when the game was on the line — Donegal finally got its only run in the top of the seventh, when Edgell scored from second base on a two-base error on a ground ball to shortstop.

Edgell, who had two of the Indians’ three hits, raced home when a ball hit by Jen Swarr caromed off the glove of Hershey shortstop Kaitlyn Blum and rolled into left.

“I knew with two outs I was running either way,” said Edgell, “so I was pushing it until I got to home plate.”

The Indians managed to win despite missing one of their key players, center fielder Nicky Hess, who was out after suffering an injury to the ulnar nerve in her right elbow last week against Kennard-Dale. She was only available for some pinch-running and pinch-hitting duties and is questionable for Thursday.

So the Indians simply went into Hartman’s grind-it-out, stay-the-course mode.

“A win’s a win,” said Houseal. “We were persistent. We stayed the course. If you can’t get it one way, you get it another way.”

Houseal allowed just two balls out of the infield: Abby Sido’s line-drive single to center in the second and Sarah Gonzalez’s line drive down the third-base line in the sixth.

While Hershey (19-3) got nothing against Houseal, the Indians only had runners in scoring position three times before the seventh.

But in their final at-bat, Edgell led off with a grounder through the hole at short and moved to second when Houseal was hit by a pitch with two outs.

Blum, who probably could have had a play on Edgell at third, saw Swarr’s grounder elude her and was unable to retrieve the ball in time to get Edgell at home.

“I knew that (Von Stein) was throwing a very good first pitch, and usually I like to hit in the beginning of the count,” said Edgell. “So I just looked for that first pitch.”

Hartman’s team now has the knowledge that, win or lose Thursday, it will advance to the state playoffs (the top three teams qualify).

“Only one team can win either one of those prizes (district or state titles),” he said. “A lot of times the team that wins Districts doesn’t always measure up in States.”

“As I tell the girls all the time, grind it out, stay the course,” he said. “We’re in survival mode now … so we’ll see what happens.”