Northwestern and head coach Bob Fatzinger were looking for a shutdown inning.

Pottsville, however, had other ideas.

The Crimson Tide batted around during a four-run second inning to erase the Tigers’ early advantage during last week’s District 11 Class 4A semifinal game at Blue Mountain.

The big frame, which was aided by an error and a couple walks, led the way to a 6-1 Pottsville victory and an end to Northwestern’s season.

“Yeah, we wanted a shutdown inning there, but that didn’t happen,” said Fatzinger. “And then we didn’t bounce back after that either.

“Our year was up and down. We’d win a few in a row, and then we’d have a game with a bunch of errors. We played some good baseball this year. We got to the Colonial League championship game. We can play well, we just don’t do it all the time.”

Against Pottsville, the Tigers jumped out to a 1-0 start. Tyler Wiik reached base on a dropped fly ball to open the second inning. After a strikeout, courtesy runner Nathan Goodolf moved to second on a ground out. Deven Bollinger followed with a clutch two-out single to right to drive in the game’s first run.

Unfortunately for Northwestern, the lead didn’t last long.

After the Tide’s Alex Every singled off Mason Vogwill to start the bottom of the second, Eli Wood laid down a sacrifice bunt. Vogwill had a play at second, but the throw was dropped leaving two runners on base with no outs. A bunt hit followed to load the bases.

Collin Herndon singled up the middle to tie the game, and Sam Siminitus hit a chopper that glanced off Vogwill’s glove for a hit and a go-ahead RBI.

“That inning was a back-breaker,” said Fatzinger. “They used a lot of small ball. We didn’t make a play on the one (bunt). We have to catch that ball. The whole inning changed there. It breaks your pitcher down. Then you have one go off his glove in the same inning. If he lets it go, you might at least get an out. But your instinct tells you to try and do it yourself and get an out.

“We had two plays there where we could have had outs. The scoreboard would have been different, I’m sure, if that had taken place. The plays were there, we just didn’t make them.”

The error and unfortunate bounce may have affected Vogwill as he walked the next two batters to force in a pair of runs.

“We always preach having an answer,” said Pottsville mentor Mike Welsh. “If someone scores on us, we have to hunker down and answer them and we certainly did that there. We keep charts on that - how often we answer. And that was a big-time answer there.

“(Northwestern’s) a scrappy team and knew they’d stay on us all game, so it was nice to get four on them there.”

Fatzinger’s club never rebounded after that, managing just one more hit (a sixth-inning single by Zach Stanley) over the next five innings.

“We faced a pitcher who threw a real good game,” said Fatzinger of Gavin Hinchliffe, who is heading to Virginia Tech in the fall. “You have to play almost a perfect game when you face a pitcher of that caliber.

“We knew coming in we weren’t going to score a lot of runs. We just came up short and that happens. They just played a good game.”

The Tigers finished the year with a 14-11 record. They started the season 1-3, but won nine of their next 12 games. After that, they closed with a 4-5 mark.

“We’re young,” said Fatzinger. “We’ll be back next year. We’ll be knocking on the door next year. We battled as a team this year. All in all, for my first year here, I’m satisfied. It’s a shame it has to end, but it’s gotta at some time.”