Every now and then, a game so strange pops up and whether your team is involved in the game or not, you have to just stare at the box score and wonder how it happened. Northwestern Lehigh played in one of those games on Monday and after just a few innings, it seemed like a pretty wild April Fool’s Day joke.

In the first two innings, the Tigers bats went wild, banging out 11 hits while collecting five walks, having one batter hit by a pitch and with four Moravian Academy (1-3 overall, 1-3 Colonial League) errors thrown in. The result was a 19-2 lead after two innings, which meant the game wasn’t destined to go very long thanks to the mercy rule that ends a game with one team leading by 15 or more after three innings or by 10 or more after five innings.

As luck – or something – would have it, Moravian Academy held the Tigers scoreless in the top of the third and then went to work offensively.

A nine-run third inning cut the lead to 19-11 and another inning later it was 19-12. Just when Northwestern seemed to put the game away with a three-run top of the fifth, Moravian Academy was back with two more runs to make it 22-14 after five innings. Another offensive outburst in the top of the fifth made it 25-14 and this time the Lions didn’t have an answer as the game ended.

Overall, the two teams picked up 31 hits, 20 of which were by Northwestern, and they combined to commit nine errors, with the Lions holding a 6-3 disadvantage in that area. Derek Holmes cranked out eight RBIs on three hits. Holmes, Brandon Mengel, Colten Hagadus, Carter Welch, Rafe Perich and Vinny Castrine all had multiple-hit games for Northwestern with Mengel going 4-for-5 to lead the hit parade.

The game capped off a big week with Northwestern putting together a four-game winning streak after losing its season opener. The winning streak started with a 3-2 win over Palmerton (2-2, 2-2) that saw a seventh-inning rally capped by an RBI single from Nick Henry that drove in two runs to get the win.

Henry, who picked up a walk-off hit in last year’s district championship against Central Catholic, loves to hit in pressure situations.

“I was just trying to hit the ball hard somewhere and keep the inning going,” said Henry of the game-winner. “I thought when I hit it that it was going to go through, but I ran hard just in case.”

The game started as a pitching battle between Northwestern’s Castrine and Palmerton’s Zach Silfies, with hitters scuffling for much of the afternoon. The Blue Bombers put runners on second and third in the fifth with two outs for Eric Nothstein, who banged a long flyball to center field that bounced just shy of the fence and then hopped over for a ground rule double that put Palmerton up 2-0.

“This was the kind of game that you love to see,” said Northwestern coach Duran Porrino with a broad smile. “I’ll take a win like this over a 10-0 win any day. Even if we would have lost this game, I still would have felt good about the way that we played, especially facing one of the better pitchers and both teams really battling, some good defense. Good game.”

Just as Castrine had given up his first hit of the game in the top of the inning, Silfies surrendered the first hit of the afternoon to Northwestern’s Conner Snyder, who legged out an infield hit. A walk and a sacrifice bunt later, Rafe Perich hit a long flyball to centerfield to score Jake Dellicker, who had entered the game as a pinch-runner.

“I just knew I had to put the bat on the ball and I expected a hanging curveball,” said Perich. “I just got what I was looking for and drove it.”

Things settled down again, with Perich moving to the mound in place of Castrine in the sixth inning and Silfies returning to form in the bottom of the sixth. Perich allowed a one-out single in the top of the seventh, but struck out the side to give the Tigers one final chance.

Henry’s heroics came with two outs and nobody on in the seventh. A single from Carter Welch was followed by a double from Perich and an intentional walk to Derek Holmes to load the bases and bring Henry to the plate for the heroics. Henry grounded an 0-2 pitch sharply through the middle to easily score Welch from third and Perich ran hard from his first step off of second to easily beat the throw to the plate and score the winning run.

Northwestern (4-1, 3-1) hosts Northern Lehigh (1-3, 1-3) Thursday afternoon in a game originally scheduled for Friday, but moved up to avoid the forecast of bad weather for Friday. They then host Bangor (2-2, 2-2) on Saturday.