Northwestern Lehigh baseball head coach Brian Polaha was a little concerned about the offense early in the season, but his Tigers put up a total of 24 runs in back-to-back games and followed that up with strong pitching in a 3-1 win over Bangor.

The current four-game winning streak has moved Northwestern to 5-3 overall and 4-1 in Colonial League games.

In the two offensive onslaughts, the Tigers downed Kutztown 12-0 and then handed Palmerton a 12-2 loss. In the win over the Cougars, Northwestern scored its 12 runs on just eight hits, but continued to show plate discipline by collecting eight walks in the game. The Tigers also took advantage of four errors.

Against Kutztown (4-4) and Palmerton (1-3 Colonial, 2-6 overall), Bob Croneberger went a combined 4-for-6 with three runs scored and two RBI. Nolan Fitzgerald had three hits in the two games and scored three times, while Eli Zimmerman, Cole Dynda, and Justin Augustus each had two hits with Dynda scoring four times. Cannon Fitch and Josh Lichman both drove in three runs in the two games.

On the mound, Shaun O’Donnell threw four shutout innings against Kutztown, allowing just two hits, one walk and striking out four and then threw a complete game against Bangor, giving up three hits and two walks while striking out seven hitters.

Josh Farber started against the Blue Bombers and allowed one run over four innings. The win over Palmerton also marked the season debut of Chase Moyer, who had been out all season with an injury. Moyer threw one inning in relief of Farber and struck out two batters.

Against Bangor (3-2, 3-3), Northwestern used a catcher’s interference call to get a runner on with two outs in the fourth and after Nolan Fitzgerald drew a walk, Dynda singled to get the first run of the game for Northwestern to tie the game 1-1.

An inning later, Northwestern had runners on first and second with two outs and Watson Church and Fitzgerald delivered RBI singles to give the Tigers a 3-1 lead that they would hang onto for the win.

The upcoming schedule has games against Palisades (1-4, 2-4) and Saucon Valley (4-1, 4-1) and next week starts at home with a game against Wilson (2-4, 2-4).