Coaches love scoring two-out runs.

Conversely, they hate giving them up.On Tuesday night, Northern Valley mentor Brad Rauch was the one enjoying rallies late in innings, while Carbon's Donnie Rehrig was left reaching for antacids.The Chargers plated all their runs with two away to earn a 5-1 Lehigh Valley Legion victory and improve their record to a league-best 9-1."It's been the story of our year, scoring runs with two outs," said Rauch. "We've done it on numerous occasions now where we've had two-out rallies and we've scored three, four, five runs. We've got a very impressive offensive team this year, possibly the best I've had in my seven years here.""They just scored more two-out runs than we did today," said Rehrig. "And we just couldn't come up with the big hit ... It's frustrating when you get two outs and have nobody on base and they put up a crooked number. They did what we're not doing right now."And they did it right away.With two gone in the top of the first inning, Northern Valley came through with four straight hits to score three times. Ben Cordova plated the first run with a single, while Tyler Wiik accounted for the other two with a double to the left-field gap.Cordova and Wiik were also part of some more two-out magic in the third. After Carbon starter Mason Goida retired the first two batters, Tyler Schreiner and Cordova both singled. Wiik and Zach Stanley followed with RBI hits to up the Chargers' advantage to 5-0."We've been able to score runs this year ... and it's not like the league is lacking in pitching," said Rauch. "The league is very good with pitching. Our guys are just hitting solid line drives, they're moving base runners, and we've improved on our baserunning from last year."Speaking of good pitching in the league, Northern Valley has a solid hurler in Cordova. The right-hander took advantage of the early lead and basically relied on his fastball to throw strikes and stay ahead of hitters.The Lehighton graduate went the distance, allowing just four hits, two walks, and striking out four."We talked to the team before the game tonight because we're at the halfway point," said Rauch. "We talked about the things we did right, and we talked about things we want to improve on in the second half. The No. 1 thing I wanted to improve on was our pitchers working ahead. So we stressed to Ben about how he needed to work ahead and not fall behind in the count."We told him to use the defense. We have an excellent defense this year ... so we told him to use that to his advantage. And he did that very well today. He worked ahead. He threw a low number of pitches in the first few innings. When you can be that efficient, you're going to come out on top."Cordova needed just 26 pitches to work through the first three frames. And despite running into some trouble in the fourth, he limited the damage.In that fourth, the Monarchs loaded the bases with one out on singles by Dan Keer and Justin Marykwas and an error. A fielder's choice from Wyatt Zimmerman scored Keer, but Cordova got another grounder to get out of the jam."Our offense has been helter-skelter this season," said Rehrig. "They had seven of their 11 hits in the two innings they scored, and that's what we need to start doing. We need to get key two-out hits, and we need to bunch hits in the same inning."The Monarchs (4-6-1) failed to get any more hits off Cordova over the final three frames.HITTING STARS ... Wiik had two hits and three RBIs, including the game's only extra-base hit. Ty Schreiner and Cordova each ended with two hits and two runs, while Trevor Schreiner had two hits and a run. The four hitters, who are Nos. 3-6 in the lineup, were a combined 8-for-13.KEEPING THE GAME CLOSE ... After allowing five runs over the first three innings, Carbon's Goida settled down and kept his team in the contest. Goida allowed just one hit and one walk over the his final three innings. "He kept us in the game," said Rehrig. "He gave up five runs but worked hard. He kept them off-balanced and did a heck of a job."WEB GEMS ... Northern Valley made a few good defensive plays. Left fielder Austin Hemmingway made a diving catch of a line drive, while shortstop Justin Welch jumped high to snare a hot shot.Carbon 000 100 0 - 1 4 3No. Valley 302 000 x - 5 11 1M. Goida and A. Joyce; Cordova and Wiik. W - Cordova. L - M. Goida.