ALLENTOWN — The team that never panics stayed true to form on Saturday and used pitching and good baseball instincts to overcome a slumping offense and an early deficit to defeat Bangor 5-4 in the Colonial League quarterfinals.

The win puts Northwestern into the semifinal round where it will face Saucon Valley today at Parkland High School.

Both Watson Church and Nolan Fitzgerald found themselves in the middle of key moments throughout the game for Northwestern. Church went 1-for-2 with a walk and a run scored at the plate and threw 1 2/3 innings of relief to get the win. Fitzgerald was 2-for-2 with a hit by pitch and made a big play in the outfield to prevent a home run.

Bangor was able to put three runs across in the top of the first against starter Aidan Freeman with the big blow coming from Gianni Goodrich, who stepped up with the bases loaded and cleared them with a long double to the right field corner.

Church had his first moment in the first when he walked to put runners on first and second with two outs. Cannon Fitch, who had singled ahead of Church, stole third and pitcher Gino Merlo turned his attention to keeping Church at first. As Church took a sizeable lead and tempted Merlo to throw over, the pitcher took the bait and threw wide to the bag allowing Fitch to score and Church to move up to second to make it 3-1.

Fitzgerald led off the bottom of the second with a single through the middle and moved to third one out later on a single by Shane Hulmes. Brady Zimmerman then legged out an infield single to score Fitzgerald. Hulmes, who had stolen second, moved to third on the infield single and scored the tying run when the throw to first on Zimmerman’s ground ball was wild, making it a 3-3 game.

Freeman had settled in on the mound and got help from Fitzgerald in right to open the third inning. Nolan Koza drove a long fly ball to right that was carried by the wind, but Fitzgerald never gave up on the ball and reached over the outfield fence to make the catch, almost tumbling over the temporary fencing.

“It was going back further than I thought it would, and I just kept going to try to make a play on it,” said Fitzgerald. “I was kind of lucky that we have a temporary fence out there because it didn’t hurt like it would have running into a regular fence.”

The catch by Fitzgerald came early in a stretch of six straight outs recorded by Freeman. Merlo also settled in after the Tigers tied the game and retired five straight hitters before Fitzgerald again took a turn in the spotlight to lead off the fourth.

On the first pitch from Merlo, Fitzgerald dropped a perfect bunt for his second hit of the day. Fitzgerald was then thrown out on a close play at second as he attempted to steal a bag, and Northwestern was unable to take advantage of the leadoff baserunner.

Koza got a one-out infield single in the fifth, and Freeman bounced back to strike out Kurtis Snyder for his seventh strikeout of the day and the second out of the inning. Goodrich then broke the 3-3 tie with a double to center and an infield single put runners on first and third, but Freeman got the final out of the inning to keep Bangor’s lead at just one.

In the sixth, Freeman walked two hitters and Church moved to the mound and pitched around the danger with two strikeouts in the inning.

Baseball instincts kicked in for Northwestern in the bottom of the sixth as Church led off with an infield single and was bunted to second by Josh Farber. Fitzgerald was hit by a pitch, and Freeman hit into a fielder’s choice to put runners on first and third.

Brady Krimmel came on to run at first and stole second, and on the next pitch, Merlo threw a pitch in the dirt that skipped past catcher Tyler Balok. As soon as Church saw the ball get away, he took off for home and Balok hurried a throw to the plate that Merlo was unable to come up with. Krimmel saw the play ahead of him and never broke stride to score the go-ahead run as Church scampered out of the way.

“Coach always taught us that if it’s behind you and you think you can get there, go. I knew I was there, and Brady Krimmel came up big to get that extra run,” said Church. “I thought he was going to get held up and didn’t think he was coming, so I thought ‘I gotta get out of here.’”

With a one-run lead, Church struck out two more hitters in the seventh to preserve the 5-4 win.

NO COLE FOR TIGERS … Northwestern plays Saucon Valley Monday and won’t have to face Cole Hubert, the Texas A&M recruit, who has shut out Northwestern the last two times he faced them. Hubert threw 80 pitches to beat Pen Argyl in one of Saturday’s other quarterfinal, which requires he have three calendar days of rest prior to pitching again. The bad news is that there is another Hubert; Noah Hubert (3-1, 1.33) will likely get the start for the Panthers.

Bangor 300 010 0 - 4 8 3

Northwestern 120 002 x - 5 5 1

Merlo and Balok; Freeman, Church (6) and Fitch. W - Church. L - Merlo.

Records: Bangor (10-11); Northwestern (17-4).