Northern Valley had a long, successful season in Connie Mack baseball this year, but it came to an end just shy of where the team hoped to be.

After advancing to the finals of the Lehigh Valley Connie Mack tournament last month, the Chargers made a deep run in the state Connie Mack tournament held at Limeport Stadium in late July.

Northern Valley opened play in the double elimination tournament with a 6-4 win over Hatboro Horsham, scoring six runs on just four hits while taking advantage of plate discipline that produced nine walks by the Charger offense.

The Heat used a four-run third inning to open a 4-1 lead before Northern Valley added a run in the bottom of the fourth to make it 4-2.

Cole Dynda came on in relief of starter Watson Church in the fifth and needed just 38 pitches to work his way through three perfect innings as the Chargers scored one run in the fifth and then took the lead with three runs in the sixth behind Dynda’s work on the mound.

The ability to come from behind was something that had become pretty routine for the Chargers throughout the season and it worked again in the opening game.

“We just don’t like to keep a lead, but we always fight back,” said coach Erich Klein. “They’re a great group of kids and none of these kids quit. We preach that, but they do it on their own and we have a great group of parents who support us.”

The come from behind game plan doesn’t always work and Northern Valley was unable to overcome a seven-run first inning by Morelanders in the next game and the Chargers fell to 1-1 in the tournament, giving them a tougher ride the rest of the way. Their second win came via a forfeit by Nazareth, which was unable to field a team, sending Northern Valley to the next round against LV League opponent Hellertown.

Coy Daubert picked up singles for the Chargers in each of the first three innings against Hellertown, helping lead to a seven-run first inning and a five-run third inning in a 13-3 win. Parker Schaffer and Cannon Fitch led the team with two RBI each as the Chargers banged out 12 hits.

Daubert finished the tournament hitting .667 (4-6) with four runs scored and seven runs driven.

“I had a really good round of batting practice today and I felt really confident coming into the game,” said Daubert of his three-hit day against Hellertown. “It was one of those days where my swing felt really good, and I was able to have a good day at the plate.”

This time around Landon Rosado starred on the mound as he threw 3 1/3 innings of shutout ball and Jaden Christman added another 1 2/3 innings of shutout ball that again allowed the offense time to come back from a three-run first inning by Hellertown.

The win was the fourth state tournament win for Rosado in his time with Northern Valley and Klein, who has coached the team for 24 seasons, believes that is the most wins in states by a Northern Valley pitcher.

“It’s always just a crazy atmosphere,” said Rosado after the win. “And I like when the people are cheering. I feed off the energy.”

The Chargers pounded out 13 more runs the following day in a 13-2 win over Chestnut Hill.

Daubert continued his hot streak with a triple and four runs driven in while Church had two hits and scored three times with Kaden Moyer and Daubert both scored twice in the win.

On the mound, Dynda got the win with 3 2/3 shutout innings and three strikeouts. In the tournament, Dynda threw 6 2/3 perfect innings with 10 strikeouts which won him the Outstanding Pitcher of the Tournament trophy.

The Chargers hoped for some revenge against a Southern Lehigh team that not only beat them in last year’s state finals, but also beat them in the LVCML finals this season.

Both teams came into their meeting with a loss in the tournament and were playing for the opportunity to face South Parkland, the tournament’s only undefeated team, in the finals.

The Spartans downed Northern Valley 8-3 with the loss coming down to one bad inning where the Chargers just simply did not play the way they had in their earlier games. That inning was the fourth when the Spartans scored five runs and Northern Valley committed two errors. In the game, Northern Valley made six errors that led to four unearned runs for Southern Lehigh.

Fitch, Dynda, Daubert, and Christman each had two hits in the game for Northern Valley. Rosado came on in relief and allowed three hits and one run over three innings of work.

“It really came down to one inning. We made some mistakes and kind of let things get away from us in that one inning and it cost us,” said coach Erich Klein. “Overall though I’m proud of these guys because they kept coming back at teams and they played hard every inning.”

Northern Valley has had a lot of success over recent seasons and Klein credits the players with putting in the extra work that it takes to win games. Unfortunately, Klein and the coaching staff will have to say goodbye to a chunk of the team as several player will no longer be eligible to play Connie Mack next season.

“The guys who have been here over the last three years have won more than 60 games, including the 21 wins we had this season,” said Klein. “They can be proud of that, and I know that I am really going to miss having them around because they were so great to coach. We always preach being high character and these guys carry themselves that way and I’m proud of them.”

Klein regrets the fact that there is no JV team at Northwestern Lehigh for his players to move into and with a high number of players moving on, the future of Northern Valley fielding a senior Connie Mack team is not clear, but Klein remains hopeful.

“This is the oldest team I think I have ever had in 24 seasons, and I hate to say it, but because Northwestern doesn’t have a JV team, these kids have nowhere to go. I think it’s wrong, but unfortunately, a lot of these kids aren’t going to play baseball anymore, which is sad because there is a lot of talent here that could be developed with a JV team,” said Klein. “I think I only had two ninth graders, so if they want to keep Connie Mack going as a senior program, the eighth and ninth graders are going to have to start being more committed, otherwise we’ll be going to juniors.”

Southern Lehigh went on to beat South Parkland twice in the finals to win their second straight PA championship. In addition to Dynda being named Outstanding Pitcher, the Chargers won the Sportsmanship trophy for the tournament.