NV heads into LVL postseason play
Northern Valley remains mired in the middle of the pack as the Lehigh Valley Legion regular season comes to an end. At 6-6, the Chargers have no path to being named the regular season champions, but that’s not the big prize.
The playoffs feature all seven league teams in a double-elimination tournament that begins on Tuesday.
With a game against Whitehall (4-4) rained out last week, the two teams will meet again in the season finale. The rainout came at a good time since it would have been the final game of a four games in four days stretch. The Chargers went 1-2 in the other two games with the lone win coming against Emmaus (0-12).
Josh Farber got the start against the Hornets and allowed just three hits over six innings, striking out seven batters in the 3-0 Northern Valley win. Farber needed just 63 pitches to get through the game, which was shortened by bad weather. At the plate, Aidan Freeman had a single and a double, scoring one run and driving in another.
Northern Valley did all of its scoring in the fifth inning as Wes George drew a walk and was able to go first to third on a single to center by Bobby Croneberger. George didn’t wait for any further hitting and stole home to give the Chargers a 1-0 lead. Freeman then delivered his double to drive in Croneberger, who then stole third and scored on a sacrifice fly by Shaun O’Donnell to go up 3-0.
The following day, Northern Valley lost a 6-4 decision to North Parkland (9-3). Nolan Fitzgerald led the offense with two hits and scored twice in the game for Northern Valley. Trailing 6-2 going to the seventh, the Chargers made a late run at the Buffaloes. With runners on second and third, a pair of wild pitches brought in two runs, but Northern Valley was unable to extend the inning as three batters in a row went down on strikes.
In the three-game stretch, O’Donnell hit .375 (3-8), scored twice and drove in two runs, while Freeman hit .333 (3-9) with a run driven in and a run scored and two stolen bases. Justin Augustus hit .300 (3-10) with an RBI and a stolen base. In addition to Farber’s outing, Northern Valley got four innings of two-hit ball from Lichman who allowed just one earned run and O’Donnell allowed two earned runs over five innings.