It’s been a tough stretch the last few weeks for the Whitehall baseball team, and a win over Parkland this week could be an invigorating shot as they head into the postseason.

After winning eight games in a row to begin league play this season, the Zephyrs have found it tough sledding after their April 21 loss to Emmaus at Coca-Cola Park. Since that showdown at the Soda Pop Palace, an 8-5 defeat at the hands of the Green Hornets, they’ve dropped five out of the next seven.

While they’ve still qualified for the postseason as a District 11 entry, a win against Parkland could give them a big boost as they close out the regular season and prepare for the playoffs.

Head coach Shaun O’Boyle knows what ails them. He’s been on the record before about how they need to hit, and hit consistently.

“We got to figure out a way to score runs,” said O’Boyle.

Well, they managed to hang up a few crooked numbers against the Trojans on Tuesday night. In fact, they scored six runs against the Trojans, the most Parkland has allowed in 12 games. The bad news is, Parkland also scored six runs.

It’s rare to see a tie in baseball, but this game ended 6-6 and will have to be picked up at another date.

It lasted 10 innings and they still couldn’t declare a winner. While it may not be that all-invigorating shot of B12, the fact that they stormed back to score five runs in the last three innings of regulation to knot the score at six, should provide a good launching pad for the rest of the season.

Scoring that four-spot in the top of the fifth was a good sign for a team that’s been looking for their bats to carry them in a game.

Prior to this game, the Zephs were handcuffed by Emmaus pitcher Todd Moxey who pitched a shutout. He allowed just three hits en route to the complete-game 4-0 victory.

That prompted O’Boyle to wonder if their bats were going to come around. He knew they had the potential. He believed it was simply focus.

He also felt their recent dip was a departure for their early season success when they were doing the little things well. Those seemed to have fallen by the wayside.

“We’re struggling with timely hitting, moving runners over, and not only timely hitting, but doing your job,” said O’Boyle. “It’s all the little things we need to do to succeed.”

O’Boyle said that they still have to “figure it out” at the plate, but they still had a few more games to do so before the postseason started.

Perhaps the six runs scored against the Trojans gets them on the right track. O’Boyle said that the players are working hard, but time is scarce. Still, everyone understands what’s at stake.

That began with the game against Parkland, a team that beat them 8-1 earlier this season. They still have an outside shot to make the league playoffs and Parkland was the first step in that journey. O’Boyle believed if they won two out of the last three games, they would be in the hunt for a wild card berth.

“They know what the situation we’re in,” said O’Boyle. “I’m anticipating that they’ll be coming out ready to play.”

After staking the Trojans to a 3-0 lead, the Zephs pushed a run across in the fourth to trim the lead to 3-1. That set the stage for the fifth inning eruption. They plated four runs to take the 5-3 lead. But Parkland answered with two runs in the bottom half of that inning to go back up by a run. However, Whitehall got the equalizer in the top of the seventh and then shut the door the rest of the way to preserve the tie.

Matt Ziminski, Matt Dobeck and Austin Dreisbach each had two RBIs for the Zephyrs. Those three each had multiple hits, with Gianni Sinatore and Javy Rodriguez joining that threesome in the multi hit column.

Matt Dobeck pitched six innings, allowed nine hits and six runs. Zach Hamscher threw four scoreless innings in relief, surrendering just two hits.

The Zephs conclude their season with Nazareth and Northampton this week.