North Parkland’s Lehigh Valley Legion season ended last weekend after going 3-2 in the league tournament.

The Buffaloes finished the season at 10-8-1 overall. The No. 3 seed for the league tournament, North Parkland lost its second-round game before picking two wins in the losers bracket to come just a run short of playing for the league title.

The Buffaloes beat Carbon Monarchs 5-0 in the first round then fell to No. 2 seed Whitehall/Coplay last Tuesday, dropping them into the losers bracket.

North Parkland bounced back with a win over Lower Macungie on Wednesday, 12-2 in five innings.

Three Parkland pitchers allowed just three hits and no earned runs in the game.

Starter Andrew Sorrentino went three innings and held Lower Mac to just one hit and no runs while striking out five batters. Sean Rivera (1.1 IP, 1 hit) and Weston Beers finished off the win.

Seven Buffalo batters had at least one hit in the game, 10 different players scored runs and six had one or more RBIs.

Austin Scherff led the way, going 3-for-3 with three RBIs and one run. He also drew a walk, reaching base in all four plate appearances.

“I felt like I could have drove the ball a little more, but I put it where I needed to place it,” said Scherff after the win. “They fell for us and we scored some runs off that.”

North Parkland scored in all five innings, with a run in the first, four in the second and three in the third to take an 8-0 lead after three. Another Buffalo run in the fourth was answered by two Lower Mac runs in the top of the fifth.

The Buffaloes finished it off in the bottom of the fifth when Sorrentino singled to drive in Wyatt Landis, Scherff followed with a single that scored Rivera and Jake Barto drew a bases-loaded walk to bring in Sorrentino.

Rivera went 2-for-3 against Lower Mac, scoring twice and driving in a pair of runs.

“Today we threw strikes and we played a pretty good game,” said Scherff. “Yesterday we had a little bit of a struggle with that in the first couple innings. If we hit and throw strikes we’ll be fine.”

That win earned North Parkland a date with South Parkland in another elimination game.

The host Trojans took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but the Buffaloes answered with a pair of runs in the third inning. Joe Algard and Aaron Atiyeh both scored on an error to give their team a 2-1 lead after three innings.

The Buffaloes cruised into the final inning with that one-run lead thanks to a 106-pitch effort from Sorrentino (6.2 innings, 2 hits, 2 earned runs, 7 strike outs).

North Parkland added two runs in the top of the seventh. Scherff scored a run on a Luke Dauberman single and Sorrentino singled to knock in Matt Razzis for a 4-1 lead.

The Trojans scored a pair of runs in their half of the seventh inning and had the winning run at bat when Razzis took the mound to get the final out.

That win gave the Buffaloes another shot at Whitehall/Coplay in the loser’s bracket final, where they fell 2-1 in eight innings.

The Zephyrs got a run in the bottom of the first inning, but North Parkland answered with one in the third when Connor Foster singled and eventually scored on a wild pitch to tie the game.

The pitchers’ duel lasted until the top of the eighth inning.

Rivera (5 innings, 1 hit, 1 run, 12 strike outs) started for North Parkland and left after 102 pitches. Razzis (2.1 innings, 3 hits, 1 run, 2 strike outs) came on in relief to start the sixth inning. Whitehall’s Dylan Carfara (8 innings, 3 hits, 1 run, 7 strike outs) went the distance, throwing an efficient 95 pitches.

When the Buffaloes got a run in the top of the eighth, Whitehall responded with two in the bottom of the inning to win the game and end North Parkland’s season.

Whitehall/Coplay went on to lose to Salisbury in Monday’s tournament final. The league champ Falcons were the fifth seed in the six-team league, but got hot in the playoffs and won four straight. They will represent the LVL in this weekend’s Region 2 playoffs.