In the last week, the Northwestern Lehigh baseball team experienced the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

The thrill of victory came on a walk-off win against Southern Lehigh, while the agony of defeat came at that hands of Saucon Valley’s Cole Hubert .

The Tigers (5-1 Colonial, 6-1 overall) and Spartans (4-2, 4-3) had waged a classic battle with both the lead and momentum going back-and-forth. It came down to the last inning.

Down one run in the bottom of the seventh, Cannon Fitch walked and Cole Dynda singled. Jake Carson then singled on a fly ball to left to tie the game.

A wild pitch brought in Dynda to give the Tigers a 10-9 win.

“At first, I couldn’t see how far away the ball went but I saw the catcher going after it and went for the plate,” said Dynda. “I knew it was going to be pretty close, but I was able to beat the throw and next thing I knew everybody was running out of the dugout and mobbing me.”

Carson had three hits on the day and drove in two runs while Watson Church was on base five times with three singles, a double, and a walk that produced a run and two RBI. Eli Zimmerman also had three hits and scored three times.

“I wonder if baseball coaches live shorter lives because I was going nuts with this one,” said Northwestern head coach Brian Polaha. “I may have taken a few years off.”

Saucon Valley’s Hubert ended Northwestern’s 2024 season with a two-hit shutout in the district quarterfinals.,

Tuesday he held the Tigers to one hit to lead his team to a 10-0 win. Hubert, who is headed to Texas A&M, struck out nine batters in the win on Tuesday.

At the plate, Hubert launched a two-run home run in the first inning to give Saucon Valley an early 2-0 lead and the Panthers added a lone run in the third for a three-run advantage. They used a five-run fifth inning and added two in the sixth to break the game open and pick up the win.

The lone hit for Northwestern came from Cannon Fitch on a single to center. Thanks to errors and a hit batter, Northwestern twice had runners on third base before Hubert got out of the jam.

After issuing a two-out walk to Josh Farber in the fourth, Hubert retired the next seven hitters to finish off the shutout.

“We got a runner to third and we moved some runners, but we couldn’t come up with big hits when we needed them,” said Polaha. “Hubert has the ability to throw with high velocity and put his pitches where he wants them, and he is smart enough to learn hitters and what he can get them out with.”

Hubert pitched Saucon Valley (5-0, 5-0) to a district championship last season with his two-hitter against the Tigers in the quarterfinals and then a no-hitter against Salisbury in the finals.

Even with his reputation, Northwestern hitters wanted to face Hubert in Tuesday’s game. In preparation, they hit against a pitching machine with the speed cranked up.

“All you can do against a guy like him is look fastball and try to adjust if he throws something else,” said Polaha. “We tried to replicate what he does with the machine but that’s not the real thing.

“Our hitters wanted to face him, and the coaches warned them to be careful about what you wish for. There isn’t anybody else like him in this league and I think that sometimes hitters give away at-bats because they don’t want to fall behind in the count and they swing early in the count and wind up hitting weak ground balls. I don’t know if he gets into hitters heads, but I can see where with certain hitters he might.”

On Saturday, Northwestern downed Catasauqua 17-0 with Eli Zimmerman picking up three hits with 12 players picking up hits and 12 players driving in runs for the Tigers.