Northwestern and Catasauqua baseball players had to dig out their winter gear and bundle up for last week’s game that was played in cold and windy conditions in New Tripoli.

Northwestern sophomore pitcher Jesse Neupauer threw a one-hitter against the Rough Riders in an 8-0 Northwestern win.

“Yeah, it was very cold,” said Neupauer. “It really wasn’t my best, but I tried my hardest. I got a lot of offense today and they really helped me out.”

The Rough Riders got their first and only hit in the top of the fifth inning.

The Tigers’ Cannon Fitch and Lucian Sterling got on base to start the inning and Cole Dynda tripled for a quick Northwestern lead.

Dynda scored on an error and Evan Fatzinger delivered a single to put runners on first and third.

Polaha went to one of the oldest tricks in the book. Fatzinger took off for second and when the throw went through Devin Rex, who had reached on the error, came in with a run to make it 4-0 in favor of Northwestern.

“We can be hit and miss sometimes offensively,” said Polaha. “We’re very young as far as position players go, but we’re coming along. And our pitching has been good. We saw that today, and our defense today was very good. We made a lot of nice plays on ground balls and got to all of the fly balls, which was tough in this wind.

“Neupauer was really good today and then with Dynda, those two will keep us in games. As long as they limit walks and we stay away from errors we should be OK. The key is getting those timely hits like we got today.”

The Tigers picked up a few hits here and there but were unable to score until the bottom of the fifth.

With the top of the order due up Fitch and Sterling singled and Dynda was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Rex then broke the game open with a hard line drive to right that emptied the bases as he went into second base having put his team up 7-0.

The top part of the order struck again an inning later when Sterling singled and Dynda doubled to make it 8-0. Dynda drove in three runs in the game and Rex drove in four.

The first four hitters in the order have been pounding opposing hitters. Fitch (.385), Sterling (.412), Dynda (.333), and Rex (.400) are hitting a combined .386 (22-57) with a home run, 14 RBI, and 23 runs scored through five games.

Dynda is 4-12 with all four hits – two doubles, a triple, and a home run – being for extra bases. Fitch and Sterling have both scored eight runs.

Meanwhile, Neupauer kept frustrating Catasauqua hitters.

With a runner on and one out in the top of the seventh, Dynda moved toward second to field a ground ball and stepped on the bag before throwing on to first to end the game on a double play, the second of the game for the Tigers.

“I didn’t even think about the no-hitter until my teammates brought it up,” said Neupauer. “I just stayed focused on getting outs and getting through each inning. My only thought was keeping my hand warm.”

As a team the Tigers have a 1.06 ERA. Neupauer and Dynda have combined to throw 19 innings without allowing an earned run, allowing just seven hits and walking four batters while striking out 28.

In other games recently, Northwestern suffered their first loss of the season to Southern Lehigh in a 10-4 game. Rex and fellow sophomore Mark Shafer both collected two hits for the Tigers. To start this week, Northwestern opened the week with a 12-9 win over Saucon Valley.

The Tigers were relentless offensively and scored in all seven innings as Fatzinger and Ethan Konyak both collected two hits with Konyak driving in three runs.

Fatzinger started his freshman season slowly in an 0-11 slump, but is now 3-8 in the last two games.