CONCORD — Jenny Gleason birdied four of her final seven holes to take a three-stroke lead at the ninth annual Northeast Delta Dental International on Saturday.

Gleason fired a 4-under-par 68 during the second round and is seven under in the Symetra Tour event being held at par-72 Beaver Meadow Golf Course.

After a bogey at 10, she got back-to-back birdies at holes 12 and 13, and did the same thing at 16 and 17 to finish with a round of 68 and distance her from the pack heading into today's final round of competition.

“It was a good, solid day of golf,” said Gleason, who is from Clearwater, Fla.

Four players were tied for second place at 4-under par. They were Alice Kim of Walnut, Calif., Esther Choe of Scotsdale, Ariz., Sarah Brown of Whitehall, Penn., and Day 1 leader Nicole Smith. Smith followed up her round of 5-under par on Friday by going 1 over on Saturday.

She did finish strong, however, with birdies at 16 and 18 to stay in the hunt.

“Those were huge,” Smith said. “Especially when you're looking at the scoreboard and your name is slowly falling.”

Gleason had two shots that defined her charge on the back nine. The first was a short putt at 13 that hung on the lip of the cup for a second before it dropped in for birdie. And the second was her approach at the par-5 16th, which she stuck about six inches for the pin to set up another birdie.

“I thought I left it short,” Gleason said about the putt. “That was a blessing.”

She carded six birdies and two bogies on the day. Things like that tend to happen when you hit 14 out of 14 fairways from the tee.

“I'm just trying to hit one golf shot at a time,” said Gleason, who has played in six LPGA events this season including the U.S. Open. “Everything started clicking.”

Kim and Brown both moved up the leader board by shooting 5-under par, which was the low score for the day. Paz Echeverria of Chile also carded a 5-under, but is at 1-over for the tournament.

Brown said she felt good about her round on Friday, but just needed to make a few more shots to put herself in a good position after Saturday.

“I knew if I played similar to (Friday), but got some shots closer to the hole I could go low today,” Brown said.

The lone New Hampshire representative and the only amateur in the field, Tara Watt of Derryfield Country Club in Manchester, shot 19-over par on Saturday and finished the tournament at 31-over.

The field was cut to the top 70 and ties for the final round of play today, which starts at 7:45 a.m. The cut was made at 5-over par.

The Symetra Tour is a developmental tour for the LPGA. The purse for the event is $100,000.

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Mark Quirk may be reached at mquirk@unionleader.com.