Technically, Monday night's Lehigh Valley Legion Championship didn't mean much. We already knew that North Parkland, the league's regular season champion, would be going to regionals and Salisbury would take the number two spot thanks to its appearance in the tournament championship.

But still, no team wants to be beaten by the same opponent four times in a season.

For most of the game, it looked like Salisbury was in good shape. But two runs in the bottom of the seventh doomed the Falcons as the Buffaloes rallied to take a 6-5 win and perhaps make a statement heading to the Region 2 playoffs that start Saturday in Boyertown.

Salisbury took advantage of six North Parkland errors to score all five of its runs, including two first-inning runs that gave the Falcons an early lead. Javier Rivera-Colon and Tyler Cooperman both picked up RBI singles in the first for Salisbury.

Starter Brad Vangeli held Parkland off the scoreboard for the first two innings. In the third, back-to-back singles put runners on first and third with nobody out and the Buffaloes capitalized to bring both runners home.

The Falcons never allowed North Parkland to get comfortable and came right back with two fourth-inning runs when they drew two one-out walks and took advantage of two throwing errors to plate two runs and expand their lead to 4-2.

After North Parkland added solo runs in the fourth and sixth, Salisbury again rebounded to score a run in the top of the seventh in part because of a fielding error and another throwing error.

It looked like Salisbury might have sealed the deal. Unfortunately for the Falcons, North Parkland started its half of the seventh with two doubles to tie the game. After an intentional walk to put runners on first and second, it looked like there would be extra innings as North Parkland was thwarted in its next two at-bats.

But the Buffaloes Aiden Flynn delivered a game winning single his third hit of the day and North Parkland grabbed its fourth straight win over Salisbury.

Cooperman was on-base three of the four times he was up, with a base hit, a walk and a hit-by-pitch. Nic Ampietro collected two hits and scored a run for Salisbury.

"We played them tough today and kept on them and really took advantage of their miscues," said manager Scott Heppenheimer. "This game really didn't mean a lot to us, but certainly, we wanted to win, if for no other reason than to not lose to them again. I still think we're going to be tough in regionals and who knows, we might wind up seeing these guys [North Parkland] again."

The Lehigh Valley Legion Tournament tested the pitching staffs of the teams involved, with games being played almost every day from July 10-15. The tough schedule was particularly difficult on Salisbury and left the Falcons in a tight spot coming into the championship.

"We had to throw our fourth and fifth pitchers today because we needed our top guys just to get to this game," said Heppenheimer. "They did a good job for us and kept us in there, but certainly, you'd have liked to have your top guys available for a game like this."

In the first round of regionals, Salisbury will face host Boyertown out of the Berks County Legion League. That game will be played Saturday, but the time has not yet been determined.