Getting off to a great start, especially in baseball, has always been vital.

If a team can swing the bats well early and put runs on the board the thought has always been it takes pressure off that respective team's pitching.On Wednesday, Hellertown followed that exact model and proved that notion to be true, defeating the Birches 9-3 for a NORCO legion victory.Hellertown (8-2) wasted no time getting their bats going, scoring four runs off five hits in the first inning. Hellertown's first four batters all came through with singles, with Paul Roth and Nathan Harka knocking in a run each. Matt Laub had the big hit of the inning, bringing in two runs with a double. The fast start was exactly what Hellertown has been notorious for in the 2014 legion season."Anytime we've gotten off to fast starts likes this we've been in good shape for a win," said Hellertown coach Chris Roth. "We just played excellent baseball today, also our pitching has been lights out. We definitely have the lowest ERA in our league this year. Our pitching has been just so solid, and then when we hit like we did today we are a pretty tough team to beat."Birches was held to just two hits through four innings from Hellertown pitcher Austin Cauly. Cauly pitched a complete game and held Birches at bay for most of the ball game, using a backdoor curveball to fan six.The Birches bats heated up a bit in the fifth and sixth inning, but they could only muster three runs in that span. They came up with three hits in the fifth and four hits in the sixth. Travis VanHouten was the Birches most consistent hitter on the day, getting two hits and an RBI."We hit the ball hard, but we didn't hit it in the right spots," said Birches coach Alan Foust. "They also came out with a very aggressive approach at the plate, swinging at the first pitch, which happened to fast ball most of the time. We needed to mix our pitches better and when we did that we settled in, but going down four runs early hurt."Hellertown added a run in the fourth and two runs in both the sixth and seventh to put the game out of reach.The loss drops Birches to 6-5 with seven games remaining, which means they have some work to do if they want to get into the postseason."We have seven games left and I'd say we need to win four or five to get into the playoffs," said Foust. "The key for us is to play better defense and get some hits. Our pitching has been pretty solid, we just need to try and put it all together, because we have as much talent as any team in our league."Hellertown 400 012 2 - 9 14 0Birches 000 012 0 - 3 9 3Cawley and Kologie; Domenecci, VanHouten (6) and Shank. W - Cawley. L - Domenecci.