The Northwestern Lehigh softball team was hoping to open the season with a 10-game winning streak, but the Lady Pirates from Palisades put an end to those hopes by beating the Lady Tigers 2-1 on Monday. The loss has Northwestern Lehigh at 9-1 overall and 6-1 in the Colonial League this season.

Last week, Northwestern Lehigh downed Bangor (3-4, 3-2), Southern Lehigh (3-5, 3-3), and Hamburg (9-2) to mark nine straight wins to open the season.

Against the Slaters, Bangor jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first before the Lady Tigers jumped right back and scored two in their half of the inning to tie the game. They added three more in the second to lead Bangor 5-2, but the Slaters were not to be outdone.

After chipping away with one run in the third, Bangor put two more on the board and tied the game 5-5 going to the bottom of the fourth.

The Tigers are not used to trailing and found that they don’t even like being tied. With that in mind, they looked to put the game away and put up four runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 9-5 advantage that they were able to hold onto the rest of the way.

The fourth-inning rally got underway when Izzy Akelaitis doubled to chase home the first two runs in the fourth and senior Marissa Christman launched a home run to make it 9-5. Sophomore Rylee McGinley had driven in two runs earlier in the game for Northwestern Lehigh.

Freshman Emma Freeman pitched four scoreless innings in relief of Peyton Neumoyer to get the win for the Lady Tigers.

After the win against Bangor, Northwestern shutout Southern Lehigh 10-0 and then won a no-league contest against Hamburg in a 4-1 final.

The team is hitting at a .362 clip with seven home runs in the first 10 games, including two each from Chrisman, Akelaitis, and freshman Abby Dunstan. McGinley also has one home run on the year for the Lady Tigers. Christman and Akelaitis have been hitting machines, with Christman hitting .500 and Akelaitis at .486 on the year. The catalyst at the top of the order has been sophomore McGinley, who leads the team with a .516 average and also holds the team lead in runs (16) and stolen bases (13).

On the mound, the mixing and matching of Neumoyer and Freeman has worked well for coach Josh Zimmerman. Neumoyer is a junior who has posted a 4.86 ERA pitching in parts of eight games for the Lady Tigers, while Freeman has allowed just one earned run in 43 innings of work, which figures out to a 0.16 ERA.

Northwestern looks to start a new winning streak with games against Saucon Valley (3-4, 2-4) and Wilson (4-3, 2-3) this week.