Pardon the pun, but Northern Valley’s offense has been hit and miss this season.

Now, the hits have started to come with a little more frequency, but they haven’t been able to bunch them together or get that one big hit when they need it most.

First-year coach Ben Schaffer saw what his offense could do Monday night when his team beat Whitehall-Coplay in the first round of the Lehigh Valley Legion playoffs 9-3, scoring more runs than it had in a game all season.

Tuesday night the Chargers and South Parkland dodged a pretty substantial storm that hit parts of the Lehigh Valley, and after waiting for nearly an hour-and-a-half, the two teams were able to take the field.

For South Parkland — the best team in the league — it was its opening game in the double elimination tournament.

The field at Parkland High School was in good shape, and while there were some annoying spurts of light rain, the teams didn’t seem to mind.

Northern Valley starter Cole Dynda and South Parkland’s Mack Parsell battled each other through four scoreless innings before the Chargers were able to put a run on the board in the fifth.

Nolan Fitzgerald opened the inning with a double to left and moved to third on a ground ball. From there, Aidan Freeman showed good fundamentals when he dropped a sacrifice bunt that allowed Fitzgerald to score for a 1-0 lead.

The run marked just the third time this season that South Parkland has trailed in a game. The other two games ended in losses to Lower Macungie.

In the bottom of the inning, it was Dynda who had to settle in when the Trojans loaded the bases with no outs. Dynda got a fly ball to right that wasn’t deep enough to score a run and then got a popup that was covered under the infield fly rule for the second out. Dynda ended the inning with a fly ball to right to keep the bases loaded and the Chargers on top.

“Our pitching has been phenomenal this season, and has kept us in games when our offense just wasn’t coming through,” said coach Schaffer. “Dynda did a great job in that inning, and I think that it fired us up, but we just couldn’t get that big hit when we needed it.”

An inning later, Dynda again found himself in some trouble.

A hit batter and a stolen base put a runner on second, and what was supposed to be a sacrifice bunt turned into a single with runners on first and third and no one out. Dynda recorded a strikeout before Grant Damweber hit a fly ball to center that allowed a run to score and tie the game 1-1.

In the bottom of the seventh, Julian Santiago — the No. 9 hitter in the Trojans lineup — led off the inning with a double and ended the night for Dynda, who was at 99 pitches. Parker Schaffer came on in relief as Parkland looked to move the runner with a sacrifice bunt, which was again turned into an infield single that put runners on first and third with no outs.

The first pitch to Brady Derr was wild and allowed Santiago to score the winning run as he raced home from third.

“We have started to hit the past couple of games, but we haven’t been able to bunch the hits or get that one big hit when we need it most,” noted Coach Schaffer. “We have been barreling up the ball much better than we did early on, and it’s almost like we are a completely different team when we can do that.

“We are much more confident, and I have to hand it to the guys for bringing it all together when we need it here at the end of the season.”

UP AHEAD ... Northern Valley will face the winner of Wednesday night’s Lower Macungie and Whitehall-Coplay elimination game, which will be played at Church Lane. The game was supposed to follow the Northern Valley game at Parkland on Tuesday, but limitations on how late the lights may be on made it impossible to play the game on Tuesday. “We’re not out of this thing, and I think the guys know that. We can beat some of these teams, and we gave South Parkland a bit of a scare tonight, and they’re a really good team, so we’re not out of it yet,” said Coach Schaffer about his club’s chances.

Northern Valley 000 010 0 - 1 7 1

South Parkland 000 001 1 - 2 5 0

Dynda, Schaffer (7) and Buskirk; Parsell and Klotz. W - Parsell. L - Dynda.

Records: NV (7-8-1 overall, 1-1 LVL playoffs); SP (13-2 overall, 1-0 LVL playoffs).