Summer baseball has more of a casual feel than varsity action, but rivalries can extend beyond the school year.

This was certainly true on Monday when Palmerton traveled to Northern Valley in Lehigh Valley Senior Connie Mack action.

The two teams traded runs back and forth into extra frames before the Chargers managed to strike last and shut the door on the Bombers with a 5-4 win in eight innings.

NV struck early with four straight singles in the first, including Brandon Gonzalez with an RBI hit, but failed to add on with the bases loaded and had to settle for a 1-0 lead.

Palmerton counter-punched immediately with two runs in the bottom half. A wild pitch brought Colton Becker home, and Chase Wilson launched an RBI double to put his team in front.

Following a scoreless second, each team added another run in the third.

The Chargers tied things up on a Tanner Fronina RBI single, only for Lukas Rivera to break the tie and give the Bombers the lead back.

The same story played out in the following three half-innings with a scoreless fourth, and another game-tying run from Northern Valley in the fifth thanks to Jacob Spatz crushing an RBI double.

Palmerton threatened in the bottom of the fifth with the bases loaded, but couldn’t convert as a strikeout ended the inning with the score tied 3-3.

Bombers head coach Chase Reph highlighted the importance of avoiding strikeouts in key situations, and how differently a game can turn out as a result.

“You never know what you can do,” he said about his team striking out 10 times in the contest. “Even if you cut those strikeouts in half, you never know what’s going to happen with the other half of the times that you didn’t strike out.

“Maybe you put a few more balls in play. Maybe you walk. Maybe more runs score, but you’ve got to limit those strikeouts.”

Starting pitchers Mason Malosh for Northern Valley, and Chase Wilson for Palmerton went toe-to-toe, and each made it into the fifth with Malosh accumulating seven strikeouts and Wilson fanning five.

Connor Hausman took over for the Chargers, while Becker stepped in for the Bombers was both went the rest of the way.

When the sixth came around, Northern Valley grabbed its first lead when pinch hitter Ryan Ebeling lined an RBI single for the 4-3 advantage.

Palmerton tied the score in the seventh on a single by Braydin Locke. However, in an attempt to score the winning run, Wilson was thrown out at home plate on a strong throw from left fielder Calvin Kulp.

This set up Hausman to get the final out and send the game into extras.

Once the eighth began, the Chargers wasted no time, as Gonzalez led things off with a double, and came around to score two batters later on Nathan Kinney’s single. Hausman finished the job retiring the Bombers in order to secure the victory.

Northern Valley has now won its last two games after starting 0-5.

Head coach Rich Kulp believes that the return of varsity members Gonzalez and Fronina have been an important presence to the team, helping them improve as they move forward.

“Early on, we’ve been struggling a little bit because we had a couple of guys that came right off of the varsity season,” he said. “Now that those two players joined us, we got our first win on Friday.

“They showed fortitude. In the past games, we had some bobbles and some errors and got down on ourselves. This time, they stuck to it and kept the ball in front of them like they needed to.”

SEASON IN FULL SWING ... Both ballclubs get back to action on Wednesday, as Palmerton travels to East Stroudsburg, while Northern Valley hosts Hellertown.

No. Valley 101 011 01 - 5 14 1

Palmerton 201 000 00 - 4 11 1

Malosh, Hausman (5) and Markovitch, Storch (6); Wilson, Becker (5) and Uhnak. W - Hausman. L - Becker.

Records: Northern Valley (2-5); Palmerton (0-3).