Cole Hubert has been a nemesis for Northwestern Lehigh. The Saucon Valley pitcher, who is headed for Texas A&M in the fall, has dominated the Tigers for the past couple of seasons.

When Saucon Valley showed up on the same side of the Colonial League baseball playoff bracket, Hubert’s name came quickly to mind. The Panthers decided to throw Hubert in their quarterfinal game and then have him available for the finals. That meant the Tigers had to face mini-Hubert, Cole’s younger brother Noah in the semifinals.

The sophomore posted a 3-1 record and 1.33 ERA in the regular season.

That, combined with a slumping Northwestern offense might have been cause for concern, but the Tigers found their offense just in time for Monday’s semifinal. The game was limited to five innings because of the 10-run rule as the Tigers banged out 11 hits in four innings and defeated the Panthers 13-3 Monday afternoon at Parkland High School.

Northwestern starter Cole Dynda pitched all five innings. Dynda walked three hitters and allowed two singles in the opening inning as Saucon Valley put two quick runs on the board.

“He did a great job adjusting and really focused on his command and threw strikes,” said catcher Cannon Fitch. “He didn’t get frustrated early. He knew we could score some runs, and he just stayed calm and got guys out.”

Northwestern erased the Panthers lead when Eli Zimmerman punched a triple in the first inning. Fitch drove him in to make it 2-1. \

Dynda singled and a sacrifice bunt by Watson Church put runners on second and third for Nolan Fitzgerald, who drove in both base runners for a 3-2 lead.

“Eli started us out with that triple and really got us charged up,” said Dynda. “We were able to feed off of that energy the rest of the game and we never let down offensively and just kept tacking on runs.”

Saucon Valley loaded the bases in the second, but an inning-ending double play got sophomore Dynda out of the jam.

“I knew I just had to throw strikes and let the guys behind me make plays,” said Dynda. “Our infield turned two double plays in two innings to get us out of tough spots, and I just rely on those guys so much and they did their job to back me up.”

In the second inning, five straight Tiger batters drove in runs starting with Dynda’s two-run single. From there, Church and Josh Farber delivered back-to-back doubles to make it 7-2 leaving Fitzgerald and Aidan Freeman to follow with RBI singles and Northwestern quickly had a 9-2 lead after two innings.

The Panthers went down in order in the third with Dynda picking up his first strikeout of the game when he caught Jake Eshelman looking. The only issue Dynda had the rest of the way came in the fourth when he lost his command momentarily and Cole Hubert’s sacrifice fly made it 9-3.

“We’re all competitors and we always fight our way back,” said Fitch. “We have a lot of confidence in each other and if one of us doesn’t get the job done, someone else will,” said Fitch.

Dynda retired the side in order on just six pitches in the top of the fifth to lock up the win.