With little at stake in this year’s Lehigh Valley Legion regular season, North Parkland is looking at its schedule as mostly a tune up for the league tournament.

Only one LVL goes to the regional tournament this season and the representative will be determined through the league’s postseason tournament. While the Buffaloes are in third place with three games remaining, they still will head into the playoffs confident they’ll be the team moving on.

“It would be nice to get a good record and a good seed,” said North Parkland pitcher/short stop Braeden Duff. “But as long as we play well in the playoffs that’s all that really matters.”

The top eight teams in the league will play in the LVL tournament. Through Tuesday’s game, North Parkland (9-7) led Emmaus (8-7) by half a game and trailed second-place South Parkland (10-4) by two games.

The Buffaloes are starting to hit their stride. With their full line up finally healthy and in place, they stampeded Carbon County last Thursday 11-4 at Orefield Middle School.

“We have five games left and everyone is here and healthy,” said Duff. “I feel like we can end on a good stretch and get momentum going into the playoffs. Out best pitchers are ready and healthy so I feel pretty good about it.”

After that win last Thursday the North Parkland lost to Emmaus 5-4 on Sunday but bounced back to shut out Salisbury, 10-0 on Tuesday.

Last Thursday’s game saw the Buffaloes take advantage of a first-year Carbon County team that was a bit undermanned.

“It’s tough playing with nine guys and having our core guys missing and not having a full team,” said Carbon County head coach Donnie Rehrig. “I credit these guys for coming to the game and giving it what they have.”

North Parkland got on the board in the first inning on a two-run single by William Algard and added another on Jeff Strisovsky’s RBI single in the second inning for a 3-0 lead. Strisovsky went 3-for-4 in the game.

Isaac Neal’s two run double gave North Parkland a 5-0 lead in the third inning.

After settling in with an early lead, Buffalo starter Braeden Duff cruised along. He gave up a single and a walk in the first inning, but retired 13 straight Monarchs before Carbon County’s second hit of the game came in the fifth inning.

“He’s our No. 2 guy and he throws well,” said North Parkland head coach Terry Stoudt. “He moves the ball around and throws hard enough to you honest.”

Duff struck out five and gave up just six hits in six innings. Dylan Snyder pitched the seventh to finish off the win.

The Buffaloes extended their lead in the fifth inning. Nick Iannotta hit an RBI double and later scored on a fielder’s choice to make it 7-0.

The Monarchs (6-9) to a pair of runs in the sixth inning before the Buffaloes put the game out of reach in the bottom half of the inning.

A single, an error and five straight walks allowed the Buffaloes to push across four more runs in the sixth inning.

The Monarchs rounded out the scoring with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh inning.

The Buffaloes got off to a slow start this season, but a young team is starting to hit it’s stride late in the season.

“I feel like we’re doing a good job hitting the ball,” said Strisovsky. “I think that’s the reason we’re getting better. I think we’re playing good baseball. It’s good to get hot late going into the playoffs.”

North Parkland finishes its season with games Thursday (vs. Coplay-Fullerton at Orefield MS) and Friday (vs. Northern Valley at Orefield MS).