"Pitching wins championships" is a universally agreed upon slogan in which most baseball experts and enthusiasts agree upon.

Two brilliant performances on the mound were put on display in Thursday's Lehigh Valley Legion post-season clash between Northern Valley and Coplay.Northern Valley's two runs were enough support for starting pitcher John Taylor as it was victorious over Coplay, 2-0.Taylor had a masterful outing, tossing a complete-game four hitter and striking out four batters."John has done a phenomenal job for us all season," said Northern Valley head coach Brad Rauch. "I didn't have any expectations for him coming into this year because he was a first-year legion player and I just wanted him to get experience."He pitched great today and all season long. He made the all-star team and he showed today what he's capable of doing."Northern Valley wasn't able to touch up Coplay starting pitcher Matt Hassick until the fifth inning when Travis Nelmes and Tyler Dibilio each had an RBI in what consisted of the game's only scoring.Hassick, an all-star himself, yielded just two runs over five solid innings of work."We just didn't hit today," said Coplay head coach Bill Kovolenko. "They (Northern Valley) were very aggressive, had some timely hitting, and pitched just a little bit better than we did today. We made a few errors in the field on some tough plays."Northern Valley has been involved with numerous close contests this season. The experience in critical situations could pay off in the long run for the team."Today is the best we've looked all year," said Rauch. "We finished with an 8-10 record, but over half of our losses came down to a last inning play."We could have easily been a 12-win team. We just played baseball the way it should be played all year."Despite the loss, Coplay isn't out of the tournament just yet. Kovolenko's squad started off the season 0-5, but ripped off wins in 10 of its last 13 games."We definitely need to hit better than that," said Kovolenko. "I thought we played some very nice defense overall, and had some nice plays from today from Will Loy and Will Kovolenko out there."Meanwhile, Northern Valley's Rauch loves the effort he's been receiving from his ball club throughout the entire season."Every team is always special, but I love this group's determination," Rauch said."When you come here as a volunteer coach and get it all back from your players it means a lot. I couldn't ask for more of these guys."Northern Vy. 000 020 0 - 2 7 1Coplay 000 000 0 - 0 4 1Taylor and Breidinger; Hassick, Dreisbach (6) and Cuvo. W - Taylor. L - Hassick.