ALLENTOWN — Northern Lehigh saw its hopes of winning a district title dashed on Thursday by North Schuylkill as the Spartans downed the Bulldogs 6-1 at Parkland High School.

North Schuylkill now goes on to play Pine Grove for the 3A championship.

The game started ominously for Northern Lehigh when the first two batters didn’t hit the ball hard, but dropped them into the ideal, perfect position just at the edge of the infield dirt behind first base for singles. One stolen base and a wild pitch later, and Schuyler Ossman was able to score the game’s first run.

Throughout the game, North Schuylkill used well-placed bunts to reach base which led to several Northern Lehigh fielding errors and two others led to base hits.

“I can’t take anything away from them, their small-ball game was really good,” said Bulldog coach Bob Hicks. “They got a couple hits early on that dropped in that you can’t defend against, so you have to hand it to them.”

The Bulldogs came right back with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning when Kaitlin Hoffman led off with a single and moved to second on a botched fielder’s choice. One out later, Lauren Hoffman singled to tie the game.

From that point though, Spartans pitcher Haley Burd pulled things together and allowed just three more hits the rest of the way. At one point, Burd retired 10 of the 11 batters she faced, with the only other batter reaching on an error.

When Northern Lehigh did mount any rallies, they came with two outs.

They picked up back-to-back two-out singles in the fifth, and an error and hit batter put runners on first and second in the sixth after the first two outs were recorded.

They also put runners on first and second in the seventh on a hit batter and a single, but couldn’t get the big hit they needed to push any runs across the plate.

“We’re a pretty good hitting team, but we couldn’t string them together today,” said Hicks.

Meanwhile, North Schuylkill strung together two hits – one of them a bunt – and used a walk and an error to produce three runs in the third inning to grab a 4-1 lead. They picked up two insurance runs in the sixth on a walk and two singles, making it a 6-1 game.

Northern Lehigh finished the season with 19 wins and captured the Colonial League championship with a win over Salisbury last week.

“I’m real proud of these kids. We had a 19-5 season, won the Colonial League title, got into districts and made it to the semifinal,” said Hicks. “I’m not disappointed, I’m more surprised. These kids worked hard and never give up, it just wasn’t our day.”

BETTER DAYS AHEAD ... While Hicks was understandably bothered by the loss, he pointed out that much of the Northern Lehigh roster consists of younger players who developed their skills this season and give the Bulldogs high hopes for the future. On the downside, the team loses some key players to graduation including both pitcher Kaitlin Hoffman and catcher Olivia Toth. “They’re going to be truly missed, they’re leaders on this team,” said Hicks of the senior players. “These kids are young and most of the kids are sophomores and freshmen and we had a great run this year.”

WHAT A WAY TO GO OUT ... Hoffman struck out eight from the mound and was on base three times while at the plate in her final high school game.

North Schuylkill 103 002 0 - 6 8 2

Northern Lehigh 100 000 0 - 1 5 3

Burd and Marlow; K. Hoffman and Toth. W - Burd. L - K. Hoffman.