EASTON - Hits continue to be hard to come by for the Palmerton baseball team.

On Saturday, in a Colonial League wild card playoff game against Notre Dame, pitcher Brandon Moffitt limited the Bombers to just three hits.The Crusaders rode Moffitt's pitching to a 4-0 victory and a berth in the CL semifinals on Tuesday at Parkland High School against Northwestern."We're not stringing hits together," said Palmerton coach Mike Svetik. "When you start stringing hits together, it builds confidence with the team. But we haven't had many hits in the last two weeks. We just have to figure it out quick before districts."We do have time. We have a week-and-a-half now to get back at it and get everybody in the right frame of mind because I know these kids can hit. I have had these kids for a long time and they can hit the ball."Moffitt recorded just three strikeouts, but the Crusaders played strong defense behind him.On the other hand, Notre Dame didn't have much more success against Palmerton starting pitcher Toby Sander, who held the Crusaders to five hits in his five innings on the mound.Notre Dame made the most of those hits, however, as they scored single runs in four different innings.Eric Santiago doubled and scored in the first on a Steven Luke RBI single. Shane Beyer scored on a Nick Basenese sacrifice fly in the fourth. In the fifth, Austin Kaulius singled and scored on a Luke sacrifice fly. The Crusaders added their final run in the sixth when Eric Senior delivered an RBI double to score pinch-runner Tyler Mottley."They have a great defense behind their pitcher, but we got the key hits when we needed to," Notre Dame coach Mike Bedics said. "We did a nice job of bunting and getting runners into scoring position, and then driving them home"The Bombers will now look forward to the district playoffs for some redemption."Toby (Sander) pitched a really good game," Svetik said. "They worked for those four runs, but you're not going to win a game if you don't score runs. You got to give them credit, they played the game right. When you're in a playoff game, every run counts."We had some runners in scoring position, but we didn't get the big hit. We just have to get over that hump. All it's going to take is that one big hit and hopefully the flood gates open. I have all the confidence in the world in them. It's just a matter of them having the confidence. Once we get to that point, we will be fine."HEADED IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION ...It was the first time in 20 years that the Bombers were taking any part in the Colonial League playoffs.HELD IN CHECK ...Ian Silfies, Zach Buck and Ben Serfass were the lone Bombers to manage hits. Garrett Perschy (walk) and Toby Sander (error) also reached base in the game.Palmerton 000 000 0 - 0 3 0Notre Dame 100 111 x - 4 5 1Sander and Mooney; Moffitt and Dadio. W - Moffitt. L - Sander.