The day after Northern Valley suffered a walk-off loss to Salisbury in the Lehigh Valley Legion playoff opener, the Chargers were back on the field in the double elimination tournament. Instead of sulking over the loss they were feeling good and ready to make the best of a tough situation against Carbon and the result showed it when they downed the Monarchs 9-5.

The team was upbeat because through their first two games they did not have to go to top pitchers Shaun O’Donnell or Wes George. Unfortunately, George never would get the opportunity to start a playoff game as Lower Macungie eliminated the Chargers by handing them their second tournament loss in the next game.

Against Carbon, Northern Valley scored early and often, putting up multiple runs in four of the six innings that they came to the plate, something that the team had struggled with throughout the season.

“We would either score a few runs in the beginning and then tail off or we would get nothing early and then try to make up a bunch of runs late in the game and it was too late,” said head coach Brad Rauch, who also saw his team take advantage of miscues by Carbon to add to its run total.

The first mistake that the Chargers jumped on came in the bottom of the first inning when a two-out error was followed by a triple from O’Donnell and George came through with a single to put the Chargers up 2-0.

In the second, starter Tyler Fenstermaker gave up singles to three of the first four batters in the inning and with the bases loaded walked Matt Domski to force home a run and make it 2-1. Fenstermaker regained his poise and got out of the jam without any further damage. He went on to throw five innings with the second-inning run being the only one he allowed as he struck out four batters for the Chargers.

George picked up his second RBI single of the game thanks to some good baserunning by Bob Croneberger. A balk and a stolen base put George on third and Cole Hausman followed with a single to bring him in and increase the Northern Valley lead to 4-1. “We all had good approaches at the plate and put the ball in play,” said Croneberger. “They had a couple errors, but that happens when you put the ball in play, and it leads to scoring runs.”

George added his third hit and third RBI of the day in the fifth when he singled to center to bring in Croneberger. On the play at the plate, George moved up to second and scored on consecutive pitches in the dirt that got past catcher Matt Domski.

Fenstermaker needed just 54 pitches to get through five innings but with playoff games every day, Rauch went to reliever Evan Druckenmiller in the sixth.

“Pretty much all of my pitches were working today,” said Fenstermaker. “I was throwing mainly a fastball and slider, but they thought my slider was a curve. I heard them telling hitters to watch for the curveball and I would come back with a fastball. It’s nice to pitch when you can keep hitters guessing and not knowing what they are going to get.”

Druckenmiller got hit for two runs in the sixth, but Northern Valley kept their bats hot in the bottom of the inning and used solid baserunning from Trey Sterling, who led off with a walk and then stole second. Ben Vaka entered the game as a pinch-hitter and hit a routine ground ball to second and Sterling moved to third but never stopped running and got in at home under a tag attempt by Domski. Later in the inning, Hausman delivered a two-run double to make it 9-3.

An RBI double followed by two walks and a hit batter cut the Chargers lead to 9-5, but with the bases loaded and the tying run at the plate, Druckenmiller got a groundball to third where Nick Buskirk was able to tag the runner going to third and then throw to first to complete the double play and end the game.

“We had a tough loss to Salisbury the night before, but our guys came out today and had the right attitude and were looking to get a win,” said Rauch. “They are a pretty loose group of guys, and they don’t let things bother them.”

Northern Valley lost to Lower Macungie 9-3 the following day to end their run in the tournament.