POTTSVILLE — Northwestern dropped its season opener to Saucon Valley and then rattled off seven straight wins before losing a non-conference game to Blue Mountain.

The Tigers followed that with 11 consecutive victories to end the regular season with an 18-2 mark.

It seemed like Duran Porrino’s team was destined to breeze through the Colonial League playoffs and District 11 playoffs before an inevitable meeting against North Schuylkill to decide the District 11 4A championship.

But that wasn’t the thinking of Coach Porrino. He has all the confidence in the world when it comes to his players, but he had one concern that bothered him; his team hadn’t really been challenged during the regular season.

“We haven’t really seen what these guys will do when they’re facing a tough team and it’s a one-run game,” said Porrino. “That’s where you find out about a team, and we haven’t faced that much this season.”

After the 9-6 loss to the Panthers to open the year, Northwestern edged Palmerton 3-2 and then beat Southern Lehigh 6-5. They would play just one more one-run game during the regular season when they beat Palmerton for the second time, this time winning 4-3.

Through the regular season, Northwestern outscored their opponents by a lopsided 182-62 margin. On their 20-game schedule, the Tigers rattled off seven 10-run rule wins and a couple others that likely would have been if not for Porrino getting playing time for younger players.

In the Colonial League playoffs, Northwestern beat Southern Lehigh 6-1 in the semifinals and then ran into the type of game that Porrino was fearing would happen. Facing Notre Dame-Green Pond in the finals, Northwestern got a first-inning run, and then fell behind 2-1 when the Crusaders put runs on the board in the top of the fourth.

There it was, a one-run game against a good team.

In their half of the fifth, the Tigers got a leadoff single from Brandon Mengel, but couldn’t make anything out of it. In the sixth, they loaded the bases with one out before a double-play ended the inning. And in the seventh, they went down 1-2-3 to fall short of gaining gold in the Colonial League.

“We didn’t do the things that we had to do to win that game,” Porrino said. “When we needed to get the big hit or the big play, we didn’t.”

After a 12-5 win over Jim Thorpe in the quarterfinals in districts, Northwestern faced a test of a different kind when they trailed by five runs – on two separate occasions against Wilson. The Warriors put five runs on the board in the top of the third to go up 6-1, but Northwestern struck right back with two runs in the bottom of the inning.

Wilson tacked on single runs in each of the next two innings to make it 8-3, but the Tigers just wouldn’t go away. They bunched a few hits, had a couple hitters hit by pitches and took advantage of a walk and an error to tie the game with a five-run inning.

Porrino’s scenario was back again with a one-run game against a good team. In the sixth, they loaded the bases with two outs, but couldn’t score. In the seventh however, Nate Goodolf and Carter Welch drew walks, and when Goodolf saw a pitch pop out of catcher Austin Wickham’s glove, he took off for third. What he didn’t see was that the ball popped right into Wickham’s throwing hand and Goodolf may have been out at third, but the throw went off the glove of third baseman Jacob Danser.

Again, had Goodolf realized that the ball hadn’t gone too far, he may have stayed, but instead, he dashed home and scored the winning run ahead of the throw.

Monday was another test. Holding a one-run lead going to the bottom of the seventh, Northwestern surrendered two runs and were unsuccessful in defending their District 11 gold from last season. Twice in the inning, North Schuylkill loaded the bases. The Spartans got a run on a sacrifice fly to tie the game, and then won the contest on a bases-loaded walk.

With league and district postseasons over, what has Porrino learned about his team?

“We still have a lot of work to do,” said Porrino. “Our pitching is good enough to win. We have to win four more games to play for a state title.

“I know their coach [Nick Brayford] pretty well and we’ve been talking throughout the year and saying ‘let’s play twice.’ Our goal is to play them [North Schuylkill] again, and we have the pitching to do it.”