FARMINGDALE — After spending most of Thursday’s rain-soaked game trying to rally, the Dirigo softball team finally tied the game and had momentum on its side.

It took just an error, a wild pitch and one mighty swing to change all that.

Hall-Dale’s Kayla Barton drilled a two-run homer over the fence in the bottom of the fifth to break the tie. Dirigo tried to rally again but fell short, losing 6-4 to the Bulldogs in the teams’ Western Class C quarterfinal.

“They don’t quit,” Dirigo coach Clint Dolloff said of his Cougars. “We just couldn’t get ahead. We had too many errors and not enough hits.”

The third-seeded Bulldogs (12-3) advance to Saturday’s semifinal. Dirigo, which graduates just three seniors, finishes the year at 10-6, with wins in six of its last seven outings.

“We’ve really come together as a team,” said Dolloff. “I’ve got both my pitchers back. So that’s good.”

Hall-Dale pitcher Lindsay LaChance cruised through the first four innings and allowed just three hits, until Dirigo tied the game with three runs in the fifth inning.

With the steady drizzle increasing, LaChance struggled. She escaped a jam with two Dirigo runners on in the fourth but wasn’t so fortunate in the fifth. Mariah Larsen and Paige Murphy each singled in runs. Murphy later scored on an error on a Morgan Hutchins pop-up.

“It was nerve-wracking,” said Barton, Hall-Dale’s second baseman who finished with three hits. “We battled back. We hadn’t seen them. Coach (Dave Kaplan) had scouted them and told us they were a decent team and had a good defense. We expected it. We didn’t expect it to be a breeze.”

In the bottom of the fifth, the Bulldogs regained command of the game. LaChance reached on an error to lead off the inning. She advanced on a wild pitch, and Barton sent a shot over the right-center field fence for her second homer of the year, making it 5-3.

“I just knew I needed to make contact,” said Barton. “We needed runs. It was definitely a boost to the team.”

Dirigo got one back in the sixth when Katrina Pulk singled and scored on an error as she was stealing second. Hall-Dale made it 6-4 in the bottom of the inning when Carylanne Wolfington singled in a run. Kyme Dolloff came on in relief of Alyssa Wade with one out and kept the lead within Dirigo’s reach.

“We’ve been able to do that a lot this year with the two pitchers and it has helped us,” said Dolloff.

The Cougars threatened in the seventh. Larsen and Murphy each singled. With Hutchins, the team’s No. 3 hitter, facing an advantageous count, Dolloff signalled to put a play on. Hutchins missed the sign for a hit-and-run and let the pitch go. LaChance threw a strike and Wolfington picked off Larsen trying to take third. LaChance came back to work a full count before getting the strikeout and then fanned Pulk to end the game.

“We had a 2-0 count and nobody out,” said Dolloff. “We wanted to have a double steal and put the ball in play. That just took the air right out of us.”

Larsen, Murphy, Pulk and Wade all finished with two hits for Dirigo.

Hall-Dale built an early 3-0 lead taking advantage of four Cougar errors.  In the second, Amber Allen scored on an error on a double steal. In the third, a Barton single and subsequent error led to a run. Barton then scored on a miscue on a Danielle Breault grounder.

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