Twice this season, Northern Valley has won back-to-back games, but has not been able to stretch it to three straight games.

To the Chargers’ credit, they came through a difficult stretch of four games in four days with a 2-2 record. The final game of that stretch was a 7-3 win over the Carbon Monarchs (2-9).

Against Carbon, Wes George was on the mound and struck out eight batters, giving up one run over four innings.

The run that he allowed came in the top of the first when opposing pitcher Aiden Rarick led off the inning with a walk and Ian Henkles followed with a single to center. George rebounded to get the next two batters before Rich Strack singled to right to bring home Rarick from second to give Carbon a 1-0 lead.

Trey Sterling led off the Chargers’ portion of the first inning with a single and a steal of second base. George then stepped to the plate and doubled home Sterling, tying the game 1-1.

George settled in and including the final out in the first, set down 10 of 11 hitters, seven of them on strikeouts. Carbon had a shot in the third when Rarick singled with one out, stole second and went to third on a wild pitch, but was left there when the inning ended.

George led off the third by getting hit by a pitch and a single from Shaun O’Donnell and another hit batter loaded the bases and Nick Buskirk drew a walk to make it 2-1 after three innings.

Sterling put on a baserunning exhibition to put Northern Valley’s fourth run on the board when he delivered a one-out double. George then bounced a grounder to second to move Sterling to third, but he never stopped and easily beat the throw home to put the Chargers up 3-1.

Nick Bogert came on to pitch the fifth and walked two hitters but escaped any damage by getting two strikeouts and a fly ball out.

O’Donnell and Nick Scott opened the fifth with back-to-back singles to put runners on first and third with nobody out. After drawing a walk and being hit by a pitch in two previous plate appearances, Hausman stepped up and was in the mood to do some hitting. He caught a fastball over the plate and hammered it over the head of center fielder Lawrence Baldassano. With plenty of open space in center field, Hausman was able to race to third with a two-run triple, breaking the game open with the Chargers up 5-1. Buskirk then ended Rarick’s time on the mound with a lined single to center to make it 6-1.

“After the first two at-bats I was looking for fastballs because I noticed he wasn’t throwing too many off-speed pitches,” said Hausman. “I was looking for something over the plate in my previous at-bat and didn’t get it. Next thing, he threw a pitch right down the middle and I just took it where it was supposed to go.”

Northern Valley again put the leadoff man on in the sixth when Bob Croneberger reached on a grounder to third base and moved to second when Tyler Fenstermaker drew a walk off reliever Evan Murphy. On a base hit to right by Austin Eisenhard, Rarick threw to the plate to keep Croneberger at third, but air mailed the throw, allowing Croneberger to score and Fenstermaker to move to third. Buskirk then grounded a ball to second to bring in Fenstermaker to add another insurance run for the Chargers, giving them a 7-1 lead.

Carbon scored two in the seventh on a delayed steal of home and a sacrifice fly, making it 7-3, but Bogert struck out the final two batters to finish off the Monarchs.

“We have a lot of intensity and I think that’s one of the most important things,” said Hausman about the Chargers team. “We don’t have one leader for the whole team. One kid may lead for one game but then there is someone else who leads in the next game. We are like a family, so everyone is a part of it.”

Coach Brad Rauch knows that teams can always do some things better, but overall, he is happy with how his team is playing at this point in the season, which runs through the end of the month.

“We are in a good spot, but we have been up and down,” said Rauch. “We had four games this week and pitching always becomes an issue when you get four or five games in a week, but the good thing is that they are playing well.”

Northern Valley fell to Lower Macungie to finish off last week. The Chargers have a doubleheader against South Parkland (9-2-1) and games against Salisbury (6-5) and North Parkland (4-4-1) this week to finish the regular season.