Senior Carter Welch is going to be an important part of the Northwestern Lehigh Tigers drive through the postseason. On Monday, Welch threw a five-inning no-hitter against Catasauqua (7-9 Colonial, 8-9 overall) in a 10-run rule win over the Rough Riders, with the Northwestern offense putting up 11 runs in an 11-1 win.

The only blemish came in the top of the third when Welch walked the leadoff hitter, Anthonie Hunsicker. One out later, Hunsicker stole second and was moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Dominic Gorr. Welch then struck out Cole Schiffer for what would have been the third out of the inning, but the third strike was dropped, and Schiffer was safe at first and Hunsicker raced home to score the first run of the game to give Catasauqua a 1-0 lead.

Welch then recorded another strikeout to end the inning and he retired the final six batters he faced, four of them on strikeouts. Of the 15 outs Welch recorded, 12 of them came on strikeouts.

Thanks to four Rough Riders errors, only two of Northwestern’s 11 runs were earned. Two errors in the fourth inning led to eight Northwestern runs. Nick Henry drove home Dylan Witkowski with an RBI double and later scored on an error. Later in the inning, Tanner Romig looked to move runners over and reached on an error, allowing another run to score. After Welch walked to load the bases, a groundout by Rafe Perich plated another run and Justin Holmes doubled to drive in two more runs.

The Tigers (15-3, 16-4) put the game away in the bottom of the fifth when Ben Boyer led off with a walk, followed by a single from Ryan Kensinger. One out later, Romig again looked to sacrifice and again reached on an error that brought Boyer home. Perich singled to score another run and with bases loaded, Witkowski worked a walk to force home the 11th run of the game for Northwestern.

While Northwestern’s regular season is done, there are still a couple other Colonial League games that will affect the seedings for the league playoffs. Northwestern and Notre Dame will be the top two seeds and have a quarterfinal bye into the semifinals, which will be played on Monday.

“I think that overall, we’re in pretty good shape going into the playoffs, but the only question is who is going to pitch behind Carter,” said Tiger head coach Duran Porrino. “We’re probably going to have to figure on two pitchers per game when Carter’s not pitching and right now, it figures to be Ben Boyer and Rafe Perich, who we will pair up to pitch in games for us.”

One issue for the Tigers this season has been injuries to starting players. Perich missed games early in the season after offseason knee surgery and Nick Henry has been hampered by an injury limiting his ability to play in his usual center field spot. The injuries and having to pair up pitchers caused a ripple effect in the lineup. Having nearly a week off until their first playoff game could help in the healing process for the team.

“I don’t ever remember us having two starting players that we’ve had hurt like this,” said Porrino, pointing out that Henry played his first game at third base on Friday with Boyer moving over to shortstop. “We’ve had to move players around and try to figure out who we can put where and kind of be creative with the lineup at times.”

Porrino is still optimistic that his team can work through the adversity and go deep into both the league and district playoffs.

“We had something like this back in 2018 with the pitching and we just had to use guys in tandem, so it’s not something that we’re completely unfamiliar with having to do,” Porrino said. “Our guys are always ready to step up and that’s what we’ve been doing, so I’m confident that they’ll be up to the challenge when the playoffs start.”