With trips to the postseason on the line, four 7A-9 softball teams played their hearts out in a district semifinal doubleheader at Pinellas Park on Wednesday.

After the dust on the Patriots’ field settled, two traditional north county powers prevailed in a pair of one-run ballgames, as East Lake got past Northeast, 5-4, in the early game and Countryside squeaked out a 1-0 victory over Seminole in the nightcap.

The second game was played in just over an hour as the two teams combined for seven hits, with the only run coming in the third inning on an RBI single by Cougars rightfielder Sommer Pollard off Warhawks starter Brooke McEntire.

“Brooke pitched her best game of the season tonight,” Seminole head coach Mark DeRuzzo said afterwards. “Unfortunately we left our bats back in Seminole.”

The Warhawks (16-10, 7-7) managed only three hits, two off Countryside starter Alyssa Queen (4IP, 2H, 1K) and one off reliever Stella Preston, but McEntire was nearly as untouchable, allowing four hits and a walk while striking out three and hitting a batter.

Countryside (20-6, 10-2) head coach Kaylyn Bayly knew she was fortunate to come away with a victory with that kind of offensive production.

“Both our pitchers did a great job tonight, and we needed that because we didn’t hit the ball at all,” she said.

“But this was a pressure game tonight, and she (McEntire) was a strong pitcher, so it was good we had enough hits today to come away with the win.”

The first semifinal game looked like it was going to be a blowout early, but after being held scoreless for five innings by East Lake starter Diana Rayder, Northeast (16-7, 7-5) erupted for four runs in the last two innings to turn the contest into a nailbiter.

The Eagles (14-7, 7-4) scored all of their runs in a sloppy second inning in which 10 batters came to plate and five scored, thanks to four hits, three physical errors and a couple of mental miscues by the normally sound Vikings.

“Too many errors. We can’t recover from those errors,” Northeast head coach Reggie Randolph said.

On top of the shoddy defense, Vikings ace Riley Randolph was far from her usual dominating self.

The junior, who is 19th in the state in strikeouts and tied for the district lead with 15 wins, was not sharp in the game, allowing nine hits while striking out just two East Lake batters.

“Riley was off, she was off today,” her father and coach said. “We were all off today.”

But despite all the troubles, the Vikings nearly came back to pull off the win.

While Rayder (7IP, 8H, 4R, 3ER, 3BB, 3K) was razor sharp through the first five innings, she stumbled a bit down the stretch.

Northeast scored three runs in the sixth inning on consecutive RBI singles by Relynn Capra, Chrissie Ellie and Lizzy Bench, but they left the bases loaded.

They scored another run in the seventh and had the tying run on second before Rayder got Capra to pop to short to end the game.

“We told them the whole game that five runs wasn’t enough because in this district, everybody is going to fight till the end,” Eagles head coach Katie Delk said.

“We were very fortunate, and thankfully our defense did the work, but we were lucky to get that win.”

East Lake will face Countryside for the third time this season for the 7A-9 district championship on Thursday night at Pinellas Park.

Both teams already qualified for the postseason based on their semifinal wins Wednesday.