As the calendar turned to July, the Lehigh Valley Legion baseball season was officially in the last week of the regular season.

Northern Valley had two key showdowns with North Parkland, the team directly in front of the Chargers in the standings and another against Whitehall-Coplay, a team chasing them in the standings.

The Chargers offense has been inconsistent this season and the team has survived on the strength of its pitching.

In the two games against North Parkland, the problem was the defense.

Northern Valley committed 11 errors that led to 10 unearned runs that sank the team in a pair of losses, falling in the first meeting by a 9-4 score and losing the second meeting 7-3.

Connor Simms was the victim of the miscues in the first game as he delivered 2 2/3 innings to start the game and allowed three hits and a walk, but four unearned runs – and no earned runs - scored on three errors during his time on the mound.

In the second game, Chris Vargas got the start and had his day ruined by five unearned runs that scored on three errors.

Griffin Unrath finished out the game and allowed just one hit and one walk in 1 2/3 innings, but North Parkland scored another unearned run.

In the first game, leadoff hitter Max George looked to kick-start the offense with two of the team’s six hits, a run scored and two runs driven in for Northern Valley.

Aidan Freeman and Brayden Buskirk both had two hits in the second game against the Buffaloes with Buskirk also picking up an RBI and Freeman scored a run.

In a doubleheader against Whitehall-Coplay on Monday, Northern Valley picked up a 7-2 win with Simms getting much better support from his defense, which still made two errors that resulted in an unearned run.

Simms threw a gem, pitching a complete game and allowing just four hits and a walk that resulted in one earned run.

The Chargers were the beneficiaries of some bad fielding as Whitehall made five errors in the game that were turned into five unearned runs. Northern Valley collected eight hits, all of which were singles.

Parker Schaffer had two hits, with the first one being a two-run first inning single to get his team on the board. He finished the day with three RBI. Nick Buskirk also had two hits and scored one of the runs.

The second game of the doubleheader was suspended with Whitehall leading 2-1 in the bottom of the second.

The Chargers (6-6) close out the season this week as they finish the suspended game against Whitehall (6-6) and then face Lower Macungie (6-6) and play a doubleheader against South Parkland (12-2) to finish out the regular season on Thursday.