There was good news and bad news for the Northwestern Lehigh baseball team when it played Palmerton on Monday.

The good news is that the Tigers battled back from a nine-run deficit with a six-run sixth inning. The bad news is that they had to battle back from a nine-run deficit. In the end, the comeback came up short and the Tigers fell to Palmerton 9-6, giving the teams a split of their two regular season meetings this year.

“I told the guys that I was really happy that they didn’t hang their heads and give up and was happy with how they played in the sixth and seventh innings, but we can’t play like that for five innings and expect to win games with just two innings of good baseball,” said Northwestern head coach Duran Porrino.

Palmerton (7-4 Colonial, 8-5 overall) came out swinging with its first two batters picking up base hits. A two-run double to center and an RBI single staked the Bombers to a 3-0 lead after one inning. Palmerton jumped on Northwestern starter Rafe Perich for another run in the second to go up 4-0 and Nick Henry entered the game in relief of Perich.

Henry ran into trouble in the fourth, starting with a walk to Cole Serfass. A passed ball and a two-base error brought Serfass home before Palmerton used some station-to-station baseball with five straight singles and a wild pitch bringing home four more runs in the inning to make it 9-0.

Pitcher Jacob Sutton, making just his second start of the season, handled the pitching part of things for Palmerton. After opening the game by walking Carter Welch, Sutton retired 13 of the next 15 hitters, with two errors being the only blemishes. Sutton then walked two batters in the fifth but escaped unscathed.

Nick Henry led off the sixth with a base hit, the first hit of the game for Northwestern (10-2, 11-2). Justin Holmes and Dylan Witkowski followed with singles to load the bases with nobody out. Ben Boyer hit into a fielder’s choice to score a run and Ryan Kensinger was hit by a pitch to load the bases. An error and a walk made it 9-3 and Perich followed with a bases-loaded double to make it 9-6.

Justin Behler, who relieved Sutton in the sixth inning, gave up a leadoff double to Holmes in the seventh and Witkowski, Boyer and Kensinger all hit the ball hard but had nothing to show for it as all three balls were tracked down in the outfield, stranding Holmes at second.

“We need somebody to step up for us on the mound,” said Porrino, who pointed out that their only two losses are in games that Carter Welch, their number-one pitcher, didn’t start. “We have a lot of capable guys but none of them have really grabbed a hold of the opportunity. I’m hoping that somebody comes up to me and says ‘coach, I want the ball.’ We need a second starter to put behind Welch.”

If healthy, Perich could still be that guy, as could Ben Boyer, who worked out of a jam in the fourth and gave Northwestern 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief, allowing just two hits and no walks while striking out three.

“We want to be the number-one seed in the playoffs,” said Porrino. “We’ve put ourselves in a position where we almost need to win out to accomplish that.”

Notre Dame (Green Pond) holds a half-game lead over the Tigers in the Colonial League with a 10-1 record, ahead of Northwestern’s 10-2 league record. Saucon Valley is hanging around with a 9-2 record, just behind Northwestern in the league standings.

In district rankings, Northwestern Lehigh has an 11-2 overall record with Saucon Valley at 10-2 on the season overall, giving the Tigers the edge at the top of the Class 4A rankings.