Northwestern Lehigh baseball head coach Duran Porrino believed that his team was going to be one of the best – possibly the very best – in District 11 in 2020. The team had perhaps the deepest pitching staff of any team and enough offense to more than adequately back up the pitchers.

The high school season was canceled, but the development of the St. Luke’s Lehigh Valley High School Baseball Tournament gave Porrino a chance to let his players show just how good they are.

The Tigers went into the weeklong tournament as one of the favorites and on Monday, they showed off both weapons as they opened the tournament with a 15-1 win over Salisbury that was highlighted by a 10-run sixth inning and a dominant five innings on the mound by left-hander Carter Welch.

Welch allowed just two hits and no walks while striking out 11 of the 16 Falcons batters that he faced. Even with staggering heat, Welch appeared to be throwing as hard in the fifth inning as he did in the first and finished by striking out eight of the last 10 batters that he faced.

“The heat didn’t really bother me,” said Welch. “I just tried to work quick, keep my pitch count low and throw strikes. A lot of it was just adrenaline, it’s nice to be back out on the field and be pitching again.”

After one inning, it appeared that Welch and Salisbury’s Tim Schware would be locked in a pitcher’s duel. Northwestern put runners on second and third with one out in the second, but Schware rebounded to strike out the next two batters to end the threat.

In the third inning, the Salisbury’s defense unraveled as they committed two of their nine errors on the day, leading to two runs, which were driven in by Nick Goodolf’s one-out single followed by Rafe Perich delivering an RBI double.

If Welch was the pitching headline of the day, Perich was the hitting headline in the game, finishing with a four-for-five day with a single, two doubles and a triple. He drove in five runs and scored three times.

In the 10-run sixth inning, Perich delivered a two-run triple that bounced off a light pole that is in-play in right field. Another Salisbury error on the throw to third allowed Perich to come home.

In his second at-bat of the inning, Perich doubled to left-center field to drive in two runs and then scored on Nate Henry’s double for the last run of the inning.

“Rafe is one of those guys who is ready to go anytime, anywhere,” said coach Duran Porrino. “He’s going to help us with his bat and when he takes his turn on the mound, too. I’m glad that he’s only going to be a junior and we’ll have him for another season.”

Northwestern had built up a 5-0 lead through the first five innings until their sixth inning outburst when they sent 14 batters to the place, collecting eight hits and having one batter hit by a pitch. The inning was helped along by three Falcon errors as they finished with nine errors overall.

Porrino appeared to hit all of the right buttons as he mixed players into the game. Aidan Remaley pinch-hit in the fifth inning and worked a bases-loaded walk and later, reached on an error and drew a second walk.

Matt Dunstan pinch-hit in the sixth and delivered an RBI triple to right field before Porrino sent up another pinch-hitter in Derek Hebelka, who drove in Dunstan with an RBI single. Tyler Stasko pinch-hit an inning later and walked.

Vinny Castrine came on for Welch in the sixth and allowed one run on three hits.

With the Tigers up 15-1 and having the bases loaded in the top of the seventh, the game was ended by a mutual decision of the two coaches.

“For the seniors, this is a last chance to play with their teammates,” said Porrino. “At the same time though, we want to use this to see what we have for the spring of 2021, so obviously, we’re excited at what we saw today.”

The tournament, which includes 32 teams broken up into eight pools, resumed Wednesday when the Tigers faced Emmaus and Saucon Valley and likely needed to win just one of those two games to advance to the round of 16. Those games were played after Press deadline.

The top two teams in each pool advance to the round of 16. From there, it’s a single-elimination tournament.

Northwestern appears headed to the tournament playoffs and will have Welch ready to go again on Friday, should the team advance out of pool play. The semifinals would be held on Sunday with the championship game being played Monday evening. Both the semifinals and the championship game will be played at Coca-Cola Park.