A five-run deficit proved too much to overcome for the North Parkland legion baseball team as the Buffaloes dropped a game to West Allentown last Thursday evening at Orefield Middle School.

The Hawks scored runs in every inning, moving ahead by five runs by the top of the fourth inning and growing their advantage to double digits with a seven-run sixth inning to take a shortened six-inning game, 13-3.

It was a tough two-day stretch for the Buffaloes, who lost to rival South Parkland the night before. North Parkland is 3-6-1 through 10 games.

“It’s been a tough year for us so far,” said head coach Terry Stout in his 49th year as coach of the program. “We have a lot of young guys this year, and it’s been a struggle to win games. The youth has caught up to us.”

Alex Oliver and Isaac Neal combined to pitch the six innings. The two are normally not called upon for many innings, but with a five games in five days, Stoudt needed all hands on deck.

Joshua Stoudt (3 RBIs), Wilbert Gil (2 RBIs) and Edward Fernandez (2 RBIs) all had multiple RBI’s as West Allentown jumped on North Parkland in the first four innings, and outhit them 14-9. Despite committing three errors, Eliseo Castro threw six innings and held the Buffaloes lineup in check. Andrew Brosious went 3-for-4 and William Algard finished with two hits, going 2-for-4.

“Those two have been hitting the ball well for us all season,” said Stout. “So I’m not surprised with the games that they had. But we have to get consistent efforts like that from some other players for us to be more successful.”

Phillip Schoch had the lone RBI for the Buffaloes.

North Parkland sits in the middle of the Lehigh Valley Legion standings around the midway point in the season. The Buffs are in sixth place out of 10 teams. They split a weekend series with Southern Lehigh, winning 5-2 on Friday, but falling 2-1 Saturday.

There are still eight games left for the Buffaloes to improve upon the season. The last regular season game will be the weekend before the Fourth of July.

“We need to be able to do all of the little things better than we are,” said Stout. “It’s been a tough year, and we’re not used to this. But like I said, we’re young. There’s more season for us to improve and make a run at this again though.”