Earlier this week, Northwestern lost to Saucon Valley on late runs by the Panthers.

On Wednesday, it was the Tigers who got a game winning hit in the bottom of the seventh to take a 3-2 Colonial League win over Palmerton.

“This was the kind of game that you love to see,” said Northwestern coach Duran Porrino with a broad smile. “I’ll take a win like this over a 10-0 win any day. Even if we would have lost this game, I still would have felt good about the way that we played, especially facing one of the better pitchers and both teams really battling, some good defense; good game.”

For Nick Henry, it was just another day at the office when he stepped to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh. It was just last May when he was in much the same situation on a bigger stage when he delivered the hit that snapped a 4-4 tie and made the Tigers District 11 4A champions.

In what was a battle between Northwestern’s Vinny Castrine and Palmerton’s Zach Silfies, hitters were scuffling for much of the afternoon. The Blue Bombers (0-2) put runners on second and third in the fifth with two outs for Eric Nothstein, who launched a long flyball to center that bounced just shy of the fence and then hopped over for a ground rule double that put Palmerton up 2-0.

Just as Castrine had given up his first hit of the game in the top of the inning, Silfies surrendered the first hit of the afternoon to Northwestern’s Conner Snyder, who legged out an infield hit. A walk and a sacrifice bunt later, Rafe Perich hit a long flyball to centerfield to score Jake Dellicker, who had entered the game as a pinch-runner.

“I just knew I had to put the bat on the ball, and I expected a hanging curveball,” said Perich of the at-bat. “I just got what I was looking for and drove it.”

Things settled down again, with Perich moving to the mound in place of Castrine in the sixth inning and Silfies returning to form in the bottom of the sixth. Perich allowed a one-out single in the top of the seventh, but struck out the side to give the Tigers (1-1) one final chance.

Snyder led off by hitting a ball to deep short that Ben Serfass made a diving play to stop, but couldn’t make the long throw to get Snyder. Pinch-runner Randal Zack was caught stealing and Justin Holmes went down swinging to leave the Tigers with two outs and nobody on. A single from Carter Welch was followed by a double from Perich and an intentional walk to Derek Holmes to load the bases and bring Henry to the plate for the heroics. Henry grounded an 0-2 pitch sharply through the middle to easily score Welch from third and Perich ran hard from his first step off second to easily beat the throw to the plate and score the winning run.

“I was just trying to hit the ball hard somewhere and keep the inning going,” said Henry of the game-winner. “I thought when I hit it that it was going to go through, but I ran hard just in case.”

While the team celebrated around home plate, Henry stood down at first base, not quite realizing what had happened.

“He [Henry] didn’t know how to celebrate down there,” laughed coach Duran Porrino. “He forgot Rafe was the second run, so Nick looked over and saw Rafe score, but didn’t even realize at the time that was the winning run. He’s the type of guy you want up there in big spots, that’s for sure.”

OUCH! TIMES THREE

... Three Northwestern batters were plunked by pitches in the game and all three just took it in stride. Holmes was grazed on the arm in the first, Perich and Brandon Mengel both took a ball to the back. In addition to the three hit batters, Silfies walked three batters – one intentionally – and issued a wild pitch.

TOUGH LOSSES

... Palmerton fell to 0-2 on the season with the loss. On Monday, the Bombers put up a furious comeback, getting six runs in the top of the sixth to turn a 10-3 game into a 10-9 game. They never got their final at-bat because the game was ended due to darkness. With Wednesday’s loss, Palmerton has now lost two games by a total of just two runs to open the season.

Palmerton 000 020 0 - 2 4 0

Northwestern 000 010 2 - 3 6 0

Silfies and Burnett; Castrine, Perich (6) and Holmes. W – Perich. L – Silfies.