Powerful Panthers too much for NL

Northern Lehigh knew entering Monday's Colonial League softball game with Saucon Valley that it was going to be in for a tough game.

That's exactly how it panned out as the Panthers' bats were on fire and they breezed to a 10-1 victory over their hosts

"In spite of what we did on Saturday, we knew we were going to have a tough game today," Northern Lehigh coach Brian Schell said, referring to how his team dealt Palisades its first loss and played one of its better games of the season so far. "As a coach, you never know if the players are going to remain as focused as they need to be and we needed to be on top of our game against a great team like Saucon Valley."

With two outs in the top of the second inning, the Panthers' Jess Mowrey singled and Courtney Laub smack a two-run homer to get the scoring going. Her home run spurred her team on to some fine-tuned hitting.

In the top of the fourth frame, the Lady Panthers caught fire again and pushed across three more runs to increase their lead to 5-0. In that fourth frame, Sarah Seneca reached on an error, stole second and advanced to third on a ground out. Then, Courtney Cawley reached on another Lady Bulldog error that scored Seneca. Jess Mowrey and Paige Phillips both hit singles that eventually scored the two other runs.

Northern Lehigh scored its sole run in the bottom of the frame when Tamara Stubits had a RBI single.

Saucon Valley broke the game open with a four-run fifth inning. Mowrey and Alyssa Lombardo both added fifth-inning singles to key the outburst.

"You can really tell the games when we're on," Saucon Valley coach Robyn Savitske said. "Because our bats are really going; and they're going throughout the entire line-up. Today was one of those games."

The winners tacked on another insurance run in the top of the seventh as they improved their record to 8-1 overall and 6-1 in the Colonial League.

For Northern Lehigh (6-3, 5-2), the task is to put the loss behind it as quickly as possible.

"We just need to get back to basics," Schell said. "We know we're capable of great games and we have plenty of opportunities to show that the rest of the season."

The Bulldogs' Maggie Lear and Jocelyn Rodrigues were both 2-for-3.

For Saucon, Jess Mowrey was 3-for-3 with three runs scored. Laub had the two-run homer and Courtney Cawley had two doubles.

Saucon Vy. 020 340 1 - 10 12 1

No. Lehigh 000 100 0 - 1 6 3

Garrity and Seneca; Wagaman, Haberern (4) and Bowman. HR: SV - Laub (2nd, one on).