The Lehighton baseball team had won four straight games heading into Monday's contest against Northwestern.

The Indians made it five straight as they turned in their best offensive performance of the season, coming up with 12 hits en route to an 8-2 win over the Tigers.

Lehighton senior Anthony Rossino. Rossino pitched five solid innings, giving up just one hit and one run. He also tallied two hits and three RBIs.

"We're just playing really well as a team right now," said Rossino. "With the weather being nice we've been able to get outside and hit more and I think that has helped us get better offensively. We just need to keep playing good baseball and continue to back each other up out there."

The Tribe got out to a strong start, scoring six of their eight runs in the first two innings.

"This was by far our best offensive performance of the season," said Lehighton coach Brian Polaha. "We had good at bats, we were patient, we waited for our pitches. It was also the hardest we hit the ball all year It was just a good day for us at the plate."

Northwestern (5-4 Colonial League, 6-6 overall) on the other hand, couldn't get its sticks going at all.

The Tigers had some opportunities early on, but Rossino always seemed to be able to work himself out of any real danger. The Tigers two runs came late, with one coming in the fifth and the other in the seventh when they were already down eight runs.

"We just need to rebound from today's performance and get refocused," said Northwestern coach Len Smith. "We are capable of much more than what we showcased today. We just seemed to lose focus at times today, so we need to just get better and move on from this one."

The Tigers were back on the field a day later, taking on Colonial League South Division leader Notre Dame (Green Pond), which entered the game with a 9-1 league record. The game got to the 10th inning as 4-4 tie and was suspended, to be finished on Wednesday, after Press deadline.

Northwestern is in the thick of the North Division race, tied with Catasauqua at 5-4 with Pen Argyl (4-4) and Bangor (4-6) looming. The Tigers host Pen Argyl on Thursday and travel to Catty Friday.