Northwestern Lehigh picked up five hits with its bats and added another five base runners with a more painful type of hit; a hit by pitch. Four different players were hit by a pitch, with Cole Dynda taking two for the team as the Tigers beat North Schuylkill 4-1 in the District 11 4A semifinals Monday at Blue Mountain High School.

“We know that hit batters get to go to first base,” said Tiger senior Cannon Fitch, who was hit by a pitch to lead off the game. “Base runners lead to runs, so you just have to take that.”

Both Spartans’ starter Steve Minahan and Dynda, who started for Northwestern, had a tough first inning. Both would go on to settle in.

In the top of the first, Northwestern loaded the bases, but Minahan recorded two strikeouts and a ground ball to end the inning.

“I told these guys that I’m so proud of them,” said Northwestern head coach Brian Polaha. “Because our pitching has been consistent and our defense has been great all year, but getting those big hits were what hindered us this year. We just had to keep our heads up.

“Their pitcher got a little rattled and then he started to settle in, so we were going to have to earn it a little more. I’m just glad that we didn’t get into a funk. I’m so proud of them because they just battled and battled.”

In the bottom of the first, North Schuylkill put runners on second and third with nobody out, but the Tigers’ defense made a pair of big plays by catcher Evan Fatzinger and Fitch to take runners out of scoring position.

“Who knows how that game goes if they get a couple more runs there,” said Fitch. “Fatzinger back-picked that kid on third and that was huge to get him in that spot. The ground ball, I saw the runner go right in front of me and I just knew that I had to go to third with it.”

Minahan had retired six straight heading into the third inning.

An RBI hit by Rex tied the game 1-1 and Lucian Sterling drew a bases-loaded walk to drive in another run and put the Tigers head 2-1.

Dynda retired 13 of the next 15 hitters and kept his pitch count low.

Minahan again got wild in the fourth and Northwestern took advantage of it.

An RBI hit from Dynda drove in one run and he eventually scored on an overthrow to make it 4-2.

“On that pitch,” said Dynda. “I was sitting slider, which is what I got, and I was able to put a pretty nice hit on it.”

While wildness was an issue for Minahan, Dynda had no walks or hit batters in the game. He struck out seven and needed just 87 pitches – 62 were strikes – to get through the game. Five of the seven hits he allowed came in the first three innings. After that he allowed just a leadoff single in the sixth and a two out double in the seventh.

“In big games like this,” said Dynda. “You can’t let that early stuff affect you because you know there’s a lot of the game left to play. We had six full innings for our offense to pick up runs after that, so we didn’t worry about it too much. We got the job done and that’s all that matters.”

The first four hitters in the lineup – Fitch, Konyak, Dynda, and Rex – finished the day 4-for-8 with three runs scored, two RBI, three walks, a stolen base, and were hit by pitches four times.

The Northwestern seniors have played in districts every season of their high school careers and this will be the third time in those four seasons that they will face Saucon Valley.

The Panthers beat the Tigers 4-2 in the semifinals in 2023 and then downed them 5-0 the next season in the quarterfinals.

In both of those seasons, the teams were 3A schools, and Saucon Valley went on to win the District 11 championship.

The two teams met on Wednesday at DeSales University at 3:30. Only the district champion gets a spot in the PIAA tournament this season.