JEFFREY REINHART jreinhart@LNPnews.com

Indians top Pioneers in what has become the L-L League’s hottest rivalry.

Took in the sites and sounds at Donegal on Wednesday, where the Indians hosted L-S for the first time this season. Always an interesting softball game when Donegal and L-S get together. Donegal got the early leg up this season with a nice 7-1 win. Here’s my story from Thursday’s New Era:

It is the hottest rivalry going in the Lancaster-Lebanon League today.

And no, it does not involve Hempfield and Manheim Township. Or even Manheim Central and Conestoga Valley.

When it comes to softball, Donegal and Lampeter-Strasburg have dominated league, district and even state playoff competition over the last couple of years.

L-S is the two-time defending Lancaster-Lebanon League champ and reigning District 3 Triple-A titlist – with a win over Donegal in last year’s scintillating finale.

Donegal won the state Triple-A championship in 2006.

And both teams call Section 3 home, so they get to battle out twice a year in league games.

Wednesday afternoon in windswept Mount Joy, the Indians and the Pioneers renewed pleasantries.

“You don’t stop thinking about this game,” Donegal pitcher Abby Hoover said. “Playing L-S is always in the back of your mind. You have to play your best against L-S, because L-S is a great team, and they’re going to give it their best every time they play.”

In their first meeting since last year’s district finale, Donegal drew first blood this season behind Hoover, who scattered six hits and needed just 74 pitches to subdue the Pioneers in the Indians’ 7-1 Section 3 victory.

“The L-S game is the one game we always look forward to playing,” said Donegal second baseman Whitney Breneman, who made two outstanding defensive plays.

“Beat L-S is always a big thing. So this was definitely a big win. Hopefully this sparks us.”

Donegal struggled a bit in its first three games, dropping a 2-1 decision to Hempfield and a 3-2 decision to Warwick, and the Indians needed 13 innings to hold off Elizabethtown 5-4.

But against L-S, Breneman, Kelsey Hannold and Jenn Swarr delivered clutch hits for Donegal, which won its Section 3 opener and improved to 2-2 overall.

Hannold, a freshman, gave Donegal a 1-0 lead in the second when she thumped a triple to right-center, scoring Taylor Hatt, who opened the inning with a single off L-S starter Lauren Wieant.

With two outs in the third, Breneman slammed a two-run triple to the gap in the left-center, plating Swarr, who reached on a fielder’s choice, and Nicky Hess, who reached on a single. Breneman came all the way around to score on a throwing error, giving the Indians a 4-0 cushion.

Swarr came up with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth, and lined a two-run single to center off Lauren McHale, who was facing her first batter in relief of Wieant, who suffered the loss after allowing six earned and six hits in 3 2/3 innings.

“Hat’s off to Donegal,” said L-S coach Tim Shoff, whose team defeated another Section 3 heavyweight, Manheim Central, 7-3 on Tuesday, and slipped to 1-1 in the section and 3-1 overall.

“They made all the plays defensively and they got some timely hits. We had some opportunities early in the game, but we kind of struggled at the plate.”

A lot of that had to do with Hoover, who mixed in a perplexing changeup and kept Pioneers’ hitters off balance. She struck out two but walked just one hitter.

L-S pushed across its run in the fourth, when Katie Lynch tripled down the line in right and scored on Denise Villega’s gap double, which sliced Donegal’s lead to 4-1 at the time.

Then Breneman flashed some leather in the field, diving to her right to snare a liner by Ashley Lehman with one out in the fifth, and then making another diving stab to rob Wieant of a hit with one out in the sixth.

“Defense really came to play,” Hoover noted. “I thought that was a big key to the game.”

“This should jumpstart us a little bit, but now it’s up to us to take it from here,” Donegal coach Tom Hartman said. “Every time you win a game in this section, it’s a step in the right direction.”

Especially when you’re Donegal, and you knock off your nemesis.

The Indians and the Pioneers will knock heads again on April 28 in Lampeter.