Northwestern Lehigh will look to win its fifth straight game Thursday when it hosts rival Northern Lehigh for senior night at De Sales University. The two teams met in their Colonial League opener early this season with the Tigers (9-6 overall, 7-5 Colonial) taking a 16-4 win.

When last week got underway, Northwestern came in having won three of their last four games after a win over Wilson (8-6, 7-6).

Last week, the Tigers won a game that was suspended earlier this season because of darkness, beating Blue Mountain 9-8 in eight innings. With the bases loaded and one out, Eli Zimmerman lofted a sacrifice fly to center field that brought home Chase Moyer, who led off the inning with a walk. Justin Augustus had three of the Tigers’ nine hits and Shaun O’Donnell pitched the final 3 1/3 innings to get the win.

Northwestern then pounded Moravian Academy 13-1, using an eight-run first inning to get things started. With two men on and one out, Zimmerman tripled to drive in both runners after the Tigers had already scored one run on a Moravian Academy (1-10, 1-10) error. Two passed balls led to two more runs and O’Donnell then scored on a groundout to make it 6-0 with two outs and the bases empty, leaving the Tigers to look for a two-out rally. This rally also started with a walk, this time to Cannon Fitch. A single by Wes George put runners on first and third until George swiped second base and both runners scored on an error on a ball hit by Josh Lichman, making it 8-0.

In the third, Fitch walked and stole second before scoring on a single by Josh Farber. The Tigers put the game away with a four-run fifth inning when Moyer tripled with the bases loaded and then scored on an infield single by Sam Mauro.

This week opened with a nine-inning, 1-0 win over Notre Dame Green Pond (5-10, 4-9) when George lifted a sacrifice fly to score Zimmerman. O’Donnell allowed just two hits over eight shutout innings and Moyer pitched a perfect top of the ninth to get the win.

This week, in addition to facing the Bulldogs (3-11, 3-9), the Tigers will play at Salisbury (7-7, 6-5) Friday.

As things stand coming into this week, Northwestern Lehigh is the fifth seeded team out of six who make the playoffs. Currently, the Tigers and Palmerton (9-5, 7-5) have identical league records, but Palmerton beat Northwestern earlier in the season. The two teams meet again May 4 at Palmerton. Northwestern is also just a half-game ahead of Wilson, who the Tigers defeated in their only meeting of the regular season.

The game against Salisbury is important since the Falcons are also just a half-game behind Northwestern with the Tigers having won the first of two meetings between the two teams.

In districts, Northwestern Lehigh needs one more win to clinch a playoff berth and is currently seeded fifth.