The Northern Valley Chargers were blessed with a lineup that had good pitching depth, strong defense and what they hoped would be at least a decent offensive attack.

The offense sputtered at times this season until showing signs of life late in the season.

It was ultimately too little as the Chargers made a valiant run into the Lehigh Valley Legion tournament before being eliminated.

Coach Ben Schaffer relied on the team’s strengths of pitching and defense and looked to generate what offense he could with the roster he was given.

Northern Valley-Lower Macungie

In a tournament elimination game, Northern Valley produced three runs and advanced with a 3-0 win over Lower Macungie, a game in which the Chargers used three sacrifice bunts to generate offense.

Already holding a 2-0 lead, Coy Daubert walked to open the top of the sixth inning and Nolan Fitzgerald looked to bunt him over. The throw to first went into foul territory down the first baseline and Daubert was able to come around and score the game’s final run.

“In close games,” said NV leadoff hitter Nick Buskirk, who finished the game with two hits and a run scored, “You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do and we played well, didn’t give them any extra outs, no walks, no extra base runners or anything and it was huge for us today.”

The offense was aided by the fact that Lower Macungie committed five errors in the game that led to two other unearned runs in the top of the third.

Buskirk hit a ground ball to third that scooted between the legs of Drayce Schmidt and into left field. A fielder’s choice moved Buskirk to second and Parker Schaffer then singled to right field and another error allowed Buskirk to score the game’s first run.

Schaffer went to second on the error and then moved to third on a wild pitch before coming home on Cole Dynda’s ground ball to short that made it 2-0.

“I was just looking to stay loose and hit the fastball to get on base and then let the other guys do their job,” said Buskirk. “I always count on these other guys to come through.”.

Braedon Dougherty also had two hits in the game for Northern Valley, whose offense produced seven hits and struck out just four times in the game.

“Good things happen when you just put the ball in play,” said Fitzgerald. “Even though we lost to South Parkland, I think it helped our confidence a little to play them so tough. We’re really looking forward to getting another shot at them.”

In addition to small ball, Northern Valley’s pitching has kept the team in games.

Aidan Freeman was able to keep his pitch count low as he maneuvered his way through the Mustang lineup. Freeman completed the game with 94 pitches and allowed just two hits and a walk to record the shutout that bounced Lower Macungie from the tournament.

Freeman struck out nine batters in the outing.

“I wanted to just pound strikes and make them hit the ball to keep my pitch count as low as possible,” said Freeman. “I was able to execute that plan. I was able to spot my two-seamer to the outside and my curveball was pretty good at times for me as well.”

Northern Valley-South Parkland

Northern Valley faced another elimination game against South Parkland and again, poor defense by the Trojans opened a door for the Chargers.

Instead of walking through that door, the Chargers had to watch as Parkland’s Brady Derr slammed the door shut and didn’t allow it to open again as the Trojans picked up a 2-0 win to advance to the tournament finals.

The first two hitters in Northern Valley’s lineup – Nick Buskirk and Brayden Buskirk – both reached base on fielding errors to start the game to put runners on second and third with nobody out and the heart of the Chargers lineup coming to the plate. Derr, whose hat was constantly pushed off his head by his thick head of hair, increased his focus and struck out each of the next three hitters with a total of 15 pitches to strand the Buskirk brothers on the bases.

The all-too-familiar inability to get a hit when they needed it most had reared its ugly head again for the Chargers.

“I was coaching third and I really thought we would somehow find that big hit; it just didn’t work out today,” said Northern Valley head coach Ben Schaffer. “Our guys were a little slow to pull the trigger at the plate today and lately, our success was in doing the opposite and swinging early in counts. You just have to say hats off to their guy (Derr) because he was hitting his spots really well today and did a great job.”

Brayden Buskirk got the first hit against Derr with two outs in the third before Derr retired 12 straight hitters. Pinch hitter Braedon Dougherty singled with two outs in the seventh for Northern Valley, but Derr got the final out on a slow grounder back to the mound.

“The last five games or so, we were getting our share of hits, but not today,” said Schaffer. “When we did hit the ball today, it was right at somebody or one of their fielders would make a good play to get to the ball and turn it into an out. They played a good game all the way around.”

Schaffer will definitely lose one player who will be ineligible to play next season and there are a couple more who may not return. Overall, Schaffer enjoyed his first season as the team’s head coach and is optimistic about what year two may bring.

“A lot of coaches in this league don’t run a lot of practices, but I do,” said Schaffer. “The weather didn’t cooperate this summer and when it was nice, we were on the field making up games. Hopefully, next summer will be a bit different and we can take advantage of some practices.”

Max George of the Chargers was awarded the inaugural Barry Detweiler Award, named after the Lehigh Valley Legion Hall of Famer and former LVL president and coach who spent over 22 years as a youth coach.

Detweiler passed away in January at the age of 84. The award will be given annually and honors a player who best exemplified the traits of Legion players, including sportsmanship, relationship with teammates, and commitment to his team. George was given a plaque and a $500 scholarship.