For the second time in less than two weeks, Lehigh-Bethlehem defeated Forks Township on a walk-off to stay alive in the Pennsylvania State Connie Mack Tournament on July 27, winning 5-4.

“It felt amazing,” said Lehigh-Bethlehem’s Cole Collins, who drove in two runs with a hit to right center in the bottom of the seventh inning. “It just feels good to come through for the team in a big way. The last couple games, I’ve been struggling at the plate, but this game, just tried to eliminate the self- talk, tried to not distract myself, just stayed calm and stuff, and I think that showed. Level swings, a lot of line drives today. You can’t complain about that.”

Collins also doubled and singled in the game and had been Lehigh-Bethlehem’s leadoff hitter until recently when he moved down in the batting order, which suits him just fine.

“The last game we talked, I was leadoff, and now I moved down to the five, and I think I’m more comfortable with that,” he said.

Lehigh-Bethlehem trailed, 4-3, when David Dunham was hit by a pitch and subsequently stole second base.

“If you get out, no one likes you anymore,” Dunham laughed. “We were seeing what they were doing with our fake steals, and then once we got confident enough, I got the sign, and I went.”

Xavier Ryan then singled to right field after Andrew Erfle’s fly out, setting the stage for Collins.

“X (Xavier) is one of the guys who finds a way on base,” said Lehigh-Bethlehem manager Ryan Beck. “He’s very versatile. I can bunt with him. He’s hit for power. Anything.”

Dunham was the winning pitcher and threw a complete game with 104 pitches.

“In theory, we bring in X and you’re expecting him to shut it down, but we knew what we were getting with David,” said Coach Beck. “You’re hoping the next guy’s gonna come in and start throwing strikes, but once you make that decision, you can’t undo it, so I was like, we know what we’re getting with David, he’s doing well, so I just want to keep him in and ride him.”

Dunham was more than happy to finish it off.

“It was good,” Dunham said. “I made it all the way, rode it out, fed off the other guys.”

That included Lehigh-Bethlehem catcher Lucas Paulino.

“He called a little bit of everything,” said Dunham. “Sliders, curveballs, changeups, mixing in fastballs too, everything. I think it kept them off balance. They never settled in to hit. It was always something new.”

Forks Township led, 3-0, in the fourth inning, but Braden Beck put Lehigh-Bethlehem on the board with an RBI single that shot through the infield.

“I knew I had to go up there and battle,” said Beck. “I had to go up there swinging and try to get my base runners through, so I pulled one to second, and luckily, it went right through, so I’m glad I could do that for the team. I thought it came off the barrel real well. I was a little late on it, but it worked out.”

Lehigh-Bethlehem tied the game in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Jackson Ondria reached first base on a bobbled ball by Forks’ third baseman.

Dunham was safe on a fielder’s choice, and Andrew Erfle singled past the second baseman.

Ryan drove in a run on a bunt, and Collins tied the game on a fielder’s choice RBI.

Lehigh-Bethlehem committed two errors in the top of the seventh, giving Forks what appeared to be an insurance run at the time, but that would change in the bottom of the seventh.

“We talked about it before the game, joking that this is gonna go into extra innings, and as it got closer and closer, we were like, oh my gosh, this really might go into extra innings again, but yeah, every time we play them, we’re evenly matched, and it just seems how the game kind of worked out every time we played them,” said Coach Beck. “We had an inning there where we kind of shot ourselves in the foot, but we had a conversation, and I was really happy with where we were in our lineup and I knew if we could get the first guy on, and if we could get a guy on second base, I really felt confident and that’s how it ended up working out for us.”