Northwestern Lehigh and Northern Lehigh have struggled on the baseball diamond recently so both were looking for a little bit of spark to get the back into the "win" column on Monday afternoon.

The Tigers (10-5, 10-4) had lost three in a row and their last two by a run. The Bulldogs (4-11, 3-9) had lost seven straight and five were by two runs or less.Even though Northwestern blanked Nolehi 12-0 the first time they met, things were different this time.The Tigers held a one-run lead entering the bottom of the seventh and held on for a 6-5 victory with a little help.John Taylor came to bat for the Bulldogs with one out and laced what looked like a base hit to start a rally. The home plate umpire called Taylor out as he rounded first for stepping out of the batter's box to nix the threat. After Northern Lehigh head coach Greg King contested the call to no avail, Northwestern reliever Jake Augustus got the final out. Brandon Eden started for the Tigers and got the win."We have a tendency to make it interesting," Northwestern Lehigh head coach Len Smith said afterwards. "The last three games we've played have come down to the last inning and last at bat and it makes it a little too exciting for me."The Tigers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first as Augustus led off reaching be on an infield single. Tyler Schreiner tripled to right field to score Augustus and he raced home later on an error.The Bulldogs used three straight singles in the bottom of the first by Jacob Kistler, Zach Rex and Austin Lancsak to make it 2-1, but the Tigers got out of the jam on a triple play to keep the lead."That was a big play," Smith echoed. "For the most part, we've been playing really good defense almost all year long. The last couple of games, we've uncharacteristically made some errors that we don't normally make. We've turned a bunch of double plays this season and that was just a heads up play."You've got to give them credit. They battled back. We have to go out there and get that shut down inning and that's what we don't get. We'll go out and score two or three runs and then we let them back in it and are even or down a run and then we have to start all over again.""We had to get back in the win column today to give us a chance down the stretch to get into the league playoffs," Smith said.Northern Lehigh tied things up in the bottom of the second when Chad Cederberg reached on an error, stole second and scored on an Evan Meixsell double.In the third, the Bulldogs took a 3-2 lead when Kistler reached on an error and scored on a double by Rex.The Tigers took advantage of a pair of leadoff walks to start their big third inning. Nick Rodrigues, Josh Wiliamson and Isaac Fatzinger all crossed the plate on a couple of sacrifice fly balls and a single by Augustus.Northern Lehigh tied it up again with two in the fourth as Cederberg and Jeremie Tomkins scored, but the Tigers manage to plate the eventual winning run in the fifth when Schreiner singled and scored on a triple by Brady Mengel."The three runs in the fourth killed us because we had the out at third base but committed and error and they scored two on sacrifice flys," said King. "If that guy is out at third, they don't score a single run in that inning, let alone three. That absolutely killed us."We're starting to play a little bit better, but this is our fifth game and we've lost them all by a total of six runs."We're right in the game, but it's one hit here and one play there and it's in our favor."Schreiner had two hits including the triple and scored two runs for the Tigers. Mengel also helped out with a double and drove in two runs. Rex was three-for-four with a double and two RBIs for the Bulldogs.N'western 200 310 0 - 6 7 4No. Lehigh 111 200 0 - 5 10 6Eden, Augustus (5) and Wiik; Hamm, Moll (6) and Kistler. W - Augustus. L - Hamm.