FOUNTAIN SPRINGS – It was another crowning moment for Northwestern Lehigh’s sports team, where gold medals are becoming the norm rather than the unexpected.

The Tigers’ baseball team found ways to paint top-seeded Tamaqua into a corner all afternoon in a resounding 11-6 win to capture the District 11 Class 4A title at Robert Wetzel Baseball Field Thursday.

The win also advances Northwestern to the upcoming PIAA state championship tournament Monday.

The Tigers found ways to mount scoring opportunities and forced Tamaqua into uncharacteristic mistakes, and rode the pitching of Cole Dynda — who also aided his cause at the plate with three hits and two RBIs.

Dynda was one of the many stars for the winners.

Aiden Freeman uncorked a triple that sent a pair of runners dashing to the plate in the top of the fifth, helping to give his team a bit more breathing room just when it seemed like the Schuylkill League champs were trying to lasso in momentum.

“I got a pitch on the (outside) part of the plate,” said Freeman, who was the Tigers designated hitter. “I saw it land down the line (in right field), but never knew what really happened.”

The ball had topspin and bounced away from the right fielder.

“I’m not the fastest guy,” added Freeman. “I’m just glad I got that hit.”

It was a fun moment for Freeman, even though his response may have been a bit lighthearted.

There were actually a lot of fun times for the newly-crowned champs, adding to the school’s reputation as Title Town.

“We’re not the best team on paper, but we have a lot of guys that just compete,” said center fielder Eli Zimmerman, who is committed to play football at Bloomsburg University in the fall.

Zimmerman reached base four times with three walks and a single, and scored three times.

“Putting balls in play, making plays in the field, that’s been a recipe for success,” he said. “Putting up 11 runs in a district final is a great feeling.”

The Tigers applied pressure, pressure, and even more pressure.

Yes, Tamaqua had a rallying point in both the fourth and fifth innings, scoring twice in those two frames.

Luke Kane and Cooper Ansbach each singled in the first rally, while Mason Ligenza, Jake Yenser and Ansbach all had singles in the second rally.

But the Blue Raiders could never fully recover.

“These kids just respond,” said Northwestern manager Brian Polaha. “We told the (kids) that we were going to be aggressive. We knew that when we got to (their) bottom of the order, that we couldn’t make mistakes. We can’t give them anything, we want them to earn everything.”

The Tigers avoided a bullet in the home first when Tamaqua got back-to-back singles from Ligenza and Yenser. Both moved up a base on wild pitch, but it never seemed to cause panic in Dynda. He dug in, getting a flyout, a lineout and a strikeout to keep the Raiders off the board.

“All I wanted to do was throw strikes, and with a defense like ours they make plays,” Dynda said. “The game plan was to throw strikes where I needed to … (to) their more powerful hitters, outside.”

Northwestern rolled fours twice in the game.

In its first rally — which came in the third — it took advantage of three Tamaqua errors and received hits off the bats of both Dynda and Watson Church.

Church was stellar throughout the game, lashing out three hits and driving in two runs. Church led the charge in a two-run fifth rally, singling to open the inning. Josh Ferber followed with a single, setting the table for Freeman’s two-run triple to turn a narrow 4-2 lead into a 6-2 advantage.

Even though Tamaqua cut the deficit in half in the home-half of the inning, the Tigers showed their resilience by bouncing back with a run in the sixth when Zimmerman walked, stole second and rode home on a Dynda RBI single. Northwestern stuck the dagger into the Raiders with a four-run seventh-inning rally.

There were four walks in the inning, while hits from Cannon Fitch and Church were the damage makers.

“We put some pressure on them at the start, but we didn’t do our thing,” said Tamaqua skipper Jeff Reading. “(We wanted to) get up on them, something that we did quite a bit this year … it was a trademark, part of our DNA.

“Let me tip my cap to (Northwestern Lehigh), they came to the plate, they came aggressive, they came up with the hits.”

There was one more slug left in the Tamaqua bats.

Luke Kane, in his final high school plate appearance, drove a ball over the leftfield fence for a two-run homer.

“I got a fastball inside and turned on it,” Kane said. “It was that kind of day, where they put the pressure on us … we had to make plays, and it was definitely the difference.”

Some teams thrive on pressure. And Northwestern relishes the big moment. Its win gave the Tigers six district titles this school year.

“Title Town, that’s what they call us. We’re taking another back there, and we’ll try our hand in states now,” said Polaha.

KEPT IN CHECK … Dynda kept Ligenza from getting his hands extended. The highly-rated baseball prospect took his final bows, finishing with two hits and two runs.

QUOTABLE I … “I did like our chances … I’m going to let this sink in. Now I go graduate in a few hours and one last bus ride,” Ligenza emotionally said.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK … The Tigers piled up 11 hits. Dynda and Church each had three. Tamaqua’s Kane had three of his team’s nine hits, as Yenser and Ligenza both had two.

QUOTABLE II … “I’m so happy for these seniors, they’ve worked so hard. Aiden Freeman, Eli (Zimmerman) is so competitive, Max George, Watson Church, some of them are just baseball guys. They deserve this,” said Polaha.

QUOTABLE III … “We had an inning there, when we kicked the ball around, and you know how baseball is, it can be contagious,” said Tamaqua manager Reading on the three errors his team made in the third, which led to the first rally by Northwestern.

Northwestern 004 021 4 - 11 11 2

Tamaqua 000 220 2 - 6 9 4

Ansbach, Mateyak (4), Yenser (6) and Kane; Dynda, Church (7) and Fitch. W - Dynda. L - Ansbach.

Records: Northwestern (20-5); Tamaqua (21-2).