QUAKERTOWN- Northern Valley had a lot to prove after the first day of the Region 2 Legion Tournament.

After getting beat by 20 runs in their opener, the Chargers were out to prove something in their losers bracket game against Birches Sunday.Despite falling behind by four runs early, Northern Valley beat Birches 16-5 to stay alive in the tournament."[Saturday], I don't want to say it, but we were embarrassed," said Northern Valley's John Taylor, who went 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs against Birches. "We needed to prove we were better than that."The Chargers return to Quakertown Memorial Stadium on Monday at 12:30 p.m. to face Nazareth in another losers bracket game.Early on Sunday, it looked like the Chargers had not recovered from Saturday's 21-1 loss to Schuylkill-Berks champ Oley/Topton.Northern Valley starter Josh Williamson gave up four first-inning runs to Birches. But the 2015 Northwestern Lehigh graduate settled down from there, allowing just five hits and one run over the next eight innings. He threw 134 pitches in the nine-inning game, with 86 going for strikes."Josh Williamson pitched well," said Northern Valley head coach Brad Racuh. "I've given him the ball the last two times we faced elimination. He's come through for us."The Chargers, who won three straight elimination games to earn the Lehigh Valley League title, were trailing Birches until the fifth inning, when Taylor brought in Ben Cordova and Tyler Wiik with a two-run single that made it 5-5.The Chargers took their first lead of the game in the eighth when Rauch called on Cordova, the team's clean-up hitter, to lay down a sacrifice bunt with a man on first and no outs. Cordova moved the runner two bases and helped start a big inning.Northern Valley pushed across five runs in the eighth inning, with three of them coming in on Taylor Breininger's RBI triple that gave his team a 10-5 lead."I feel great coming back after losing the first game," said Breininger. "We knew it was do or die. We faced that a couple times this year in the playoffs and we knew that we could compete with anyone."Northern Valley tacked on six more runs in the ninth inning on three hits, three walks and a sacrifice fly.Birches jumped out to its early lead on Luke Hohenstein's two-run double. They added another run on a balk and a fourth run on a fielder's choice.The Chargers made it 4-2 in the second inning on a pair of sacrifice flies by Evan Meixsell and Breininger, who had five RBIs in the game.Birches made it 5-2 on a misplayed line drive to right field in the bottom of the third inning.The Chargers swung momentum back in their favor when Wiik launched a solo homer over the left-center field fence to make it 5-3 in the fourth inning.Williamson had settled into a groove at that point and the defense behind him made several big plays.The loss ends the season for Birches, which won this year's Northampton County League title."When we hit the ball it was right at somebody," said Birches head coach Allen Faust. "That's the game of baseball. They got some breaks and scored a lot of runs and we dug a hole and couldn't come out of it."It was a great season. Winning the overall championship was great. This was pretty much a bonus. I love these kids. They can't give us any more than they did."DOUBLE TROUBLE ... Northern Valley's Cordova (short stop) and Evan Meixsell (second base) turned three double plays in the win over Birches. They spun two of the 6-4-3 type and one 4-6-3.BIG HITTERS ... Six Northern Valley players had two hits or more, including Taylor (3-for-4, 3 RBIs), Breininger (2-for-4, 5 RBIs), Kole Rodriguez (2-for-5), Cordova (2-for-3, 3 runs), Wiik (2-for-3, 4 runs) and Jacob Kistler (2-for-3, RBI, 2 runs).TOURNEY HAPPENINGS ... Norchester, which beat Nazareth 18-3 Sunday, and host Quakertown, which beat Oley-Topton 12-0 Sunday, will meet in Monday's winners' bracket final. Birches opened the tournament with a 6-1 loss to Quakertown. Hatfield and Oley/Topton will also meet Monday in a losers bracket game.N. Valley 020 102 056 - 16 16 2Birches 401 000 000 - 5 10 3Williamson and Wiik; Hohenstein, Coursey (8), Dominici and Hanyon. W - Williamson. L - Hohenstein. HR: NV - Wiik (fourth, none on)