After a surprising loss to Fullerton in their second game of the day on Sunday, North Parkland had a day off to contemplate the fact that it was one loss away from letting the Lehigh Valley Legion playoff championship slip away.

On that day off, Lower Macungie battled Fullerton and came away with a win to set up Tuesday's battle for the championship. With the recent loss still in their minds, the Buffaloes came out to take an early lead and walked away with a 6-1 win over rival Lower Macungie.

Starter Alex Bartholomew was nearly unhittable through much of the game. The first baserunner he allowed came in the top of the third when he walked Nolan Cope with one out. Cope was quickly erased when catcher Dan Zaccaro picked him off of first base.

Bartholomew gave up two walks in the fifth, but the first was erased on a double-play and the other was thrown out attempting to steal to end the inning, leaving Bartholomew having faced the minimum number of batters and having a no-hitter through five innings.

Bartholomew threw just a few innings with the high school team, but has been on the mound pretty much this summer with North Parkland. His outing Tuesday was the best he's thrown, but he lost the no-hitter when Lukas Wieder led off the sixth with a line drive single to right.

Bartholomew quickly rebounded to put down the next three hitters to end the inning.

"I knew I had [a no-hitter], I just really wasn't paying attention to it," said Bartholomew, who said his teammates started giving him the silent treatment at one point in the game. "I just wanted to keep throwing inning-to-inning. It would have been nice to have one, but it's still a W and we still won

"The fifth inning, I came in and they were like 'nobody talk to him, nobody talk to him.' I was thinking 'all right,' but I had fun."

In reality, the game against Lower Macungie was basically just for the bragging rights of having captured both the regular season title and being the playoff champion. Both teams were guaranteed a spot in the Region 2 playoffs, which begin Saturday, and North Parkland already knew it would be the top-seed out of the LVL. Manager Terry Stoudt gave some thought to just using the game as a tune up and getting some work for a number of his pitchers, but decided against that approach.

"I did [think about it], but they all pitched a little bit here-and-there, so it's not like they haven't pitched," said Stoudt. "I wanted to have [Evan] McAndrew pitch a little bit, and he did, he came in in the last inning, so it worked out perfect for me."

McAndrew came on in relief of Bartholomew in the seventh when Lower Mac put runners on first and third with just one out. McAndrew, who was the losing pitcher in Sunday's loss to Fullerton, retired Bartoni on a ground ball that allowed Tyler Sweeney to score from third and the got the final out of the game on a flyball to right field.

Bartholomew wanted to finish the game, but admitted that he was starting to struggle and going to McAndrew was the right move to make.

"I wanted to [finish the game], but I just ran out of gas," said Bartholomew. "My velocity was really dropping in the sixth inning. I still felt good, but I didn't have much left."

The Buffaloes head into regionals as the defending champion and face host team Freemansburg Saturday. The team is hoping to expand on their regional championship with state championship this season, especially since many of them played deep into the PIAA playoffs with the high school team, but came up short of a state title.

"We've been there and we've had a taste of it, and I think the kids are looking for a state championship," said Stoudt. "They were up there with the high school team, so they have the experience of doing it and they're competitive kids. Parkland kids are very competitive kids, and they win so much, they just win, win, win, no matter what sport it is."