Hits and runs were hard to come by for the Northern Lehigh softball team over the course of a three-game losing streak.

Friday afternoon however, the Bulldogs only needed three innings of play to make that losing streak a thing of the past.Northern Lehigh was running on all cylinders as it cruised to a 16-1 Colonial League victory over Notre Dame of Green Pond."This is a big win," Northern Lehigh coach Bob Hicks said. "We haven't been hitting the ball well lately and today they came out and hit the ball hard. We needed this win today because we didn't play well the last week."I'm really proud of our girls because we have been in games that we didn't hit the ball. Three, four hits a game, that's just not enough to win games."Hits were definitely easy to come by against the Crusaders.After a 1-2-3 first inning, the Bulldog bats erupted in the second.Meghan Handwerk got the ball rolling with a two-run single. Sagan Schaffer and Maddie Bellesfield followed with singles to load the bases. Kaitlin Hoffman then jumped on the first pitch she saw and sent it to deep right-centerfield for an inside-the-park grand slam.Bulldogs' senior center fielder Taylor Herman put the exclamation point on the seven-hit, eight-run second inning with a solo home run to left center field."We were in a little bit of a slump, but we got out of it by working hard and working together today," Herman said. "We know we can do it. So, it was great to put together those two solid innings in the batter's box."Despite that eruption, the Bulldogs weren't quite finished making noise at the plate.After Maddie Bellesfield chipped in with an RBI single in the third, Hoffman followed with her second grand slam of the game."With bases loaded, I'm simply thinking single ... just so I can get a run across," said Hoffman. " But extra base hits are always extra special."Everything came together today. We were solid on the field. We were solid at the plate. And, that's what it takes to win games."CLOSING IN ... With the win, the Bulldogs move to within one victory of qualifying for districts, as they improve to 9-7 overall and 6-7 in the league.QUICK TURNAROUND ... After getting a combined 18 hits during the previous 21 innings, the Bulldogs turned things around against Notre Dame with 13 hits in less than three full innings.HITTING STARS ... All but one of the Bulldogs collected a hit. In addition to Hoffman, Herman (single, home run); Paige Hemingway (two doubles, two runs scored); Handwerk (two singles, two runs scored, four RBIs), Schaffer (two singles, two runs scored) and Bellesfield (two singles, a run scored, one RBI) also had multiple hit games.Notre Dame 001 - 1 1 3Northern Lehigh 088 - 16 13 1Gross and Fagan; K. Hoffman and D. Hoffman. W - K. Hoffman. L - Gross. HR: NL - K. Hoffman (2nd, three on), (3rd, three on); Herman (3rd, none on).