COPLAY — The way things worked out late in the season, Northern Valley and Whitehall played three times in the last 10 days — which turned out to be bad news for the Chargers.

Whitehall won all three games with its pitching holding Northern Valley to just seven runs and a .190 batting average over that span.

The latest meeting came Tuesday night and produced a 2-0 Whitehall victory in the opening round of the Lehigh Valley Legion playoffs — a double-elimination tournament that will send one team to the regional playoffs that begin later this month.

Shaun O’Donnell of Northern Valley and Ryan Lindenmuth of Whitehall hooked up in a tremendous pitcher’s duel, with neither starter appearing willing to bend through most of the game. O’Donnell retired the first 14 hitters he faced until Nick Kotsch reached on an infield single with two outs in the fifth inning, only to have O’Donnell get his fifth strikeout on three pitches to end the inning.

Lindenmuth wasn’t quite as dominating, but was cruising until Northern Valley put together a bit of an offensive uprising in the top of the third. With two outs, Bobby Croneberger walked and Trey Sterling followed with a single to right to put runners on the corners, only to have Lindenmuth regroup and record a three-pitch strikeout to end the inning.

In the middle innings, it almost looked like Lindenmuth was toying with Northern Valley hitters, allowing them just enough offense to raise their hopes before dashing them. After their close call in the third, Chargers’ leadoff hitter Josh Lichman lined a double to left to start the inning. A groundout moved Lichman to third, but Lindenmuth stiffened and the Chargers again failed to push home the run leaving the game scoreless. The inning repeated itself in the sixth when O’Donnell led off with a double and moved to third on a groundball, only to be stranded there.

“We had some opportunities, but we just couldn’t come up with the big hit that we needed to get a lead,” said Northern Valley coach Brad Rauch. “If we get something along the way, maybe it puts more pressure on them and changes the game, but he [Lindenmuth] just shut us down today.”

It took until the bottom of the sixth for Whitehall (8-5) to get to O’Donnell as it came up with back-to-back singles to put runners on first and third. Sudge Hoderewski then delivered a flyball to center that was deep enough to score a run, and Tyler Reichenbach followed with an RBI double for a 2-0 lead.

Northern Valley (6-10) didn’t stop battling though even when it was down to its final out. Max George worked a two-out walk, and Croneberger followed with a single to center to bring the go-ahead run to the plate in the top of the seventh. Sterling hit a hard grounder to short, but Hoderewski fielded the ball cleanly and calmly threw to first for the final out of the game.

“Our guys will have to bounce back, and we’ll come back and keep fighting. It’s not over for us, but we made things tougher on ourselves with the early loss,” said Rauch. “We just have to come back and see if we can put together a run.”

ENOUGH OF YOU … Lindenmuth has pitched the last two games between the two teams and has amassed quite a line. In 15 1/3 innings, the right-hander has allowed just seven hits and recorded 15 strikeouts against Northern Valley.

NEXT UP … Northern Valley returns to action Thursday and will face the winner of the Southern Lehigh (4-11) and Emmaus (0-13) game, which will be played tonight at Limeport Stadium. Whitehall faces regular season champion South Parkland (10-3) tonight in a winner’s bracket game.

Northern Valley 000 000 0 – 0 5 0

Whitehall 000 000 x – 2 4 0

O’Donnell and Farber; Lindenmuth and Reichenbach. W-Lindenmuth. L-O’Donnell.