The second game of the NorCo Legion Championship Series at Saylorsburg Playground had a little bit of everything on Monday.

Except enough daylight.

The Birches and Northampton remained tied 2-2 after 11 innings when the game was suspended due to darkness.

The resumption of the game will begin at 5 p.m. today at Northampton with the Birches leading the best-of-three series 1-0.

An if-necessary third game would begin immediately after the second game. Northampton was previously scheduled to host the if-necessary third game.

“Once the sun goes down below those trees, it gets very difficult for kids to see,” said home plate umpire and crew chief Mark Brown - in his 50th year working Legion and high school baseball - of the field, which has no lights. “And we can’t likely get another complete inning in.”

The Birches rallied to force extras, plating a run in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie it at 2-2 when Nate Loch delivered an RBI single with one out to score Jake Gethen.

But Owen Laury, who came on in relief for Hunter Corrow in the top of the seventh for Northampton, worked out of a one-out bases loaded jam, inducing a pop out to second base and a fly out to center field to deny Birches a chance to win it.

Laury allowed just two baserunners the rest of the way, a leadoff walk in the ninth inning and a two-out infield single in the bottom of the 11th.

Ryan Kymer relieved Nate Mostosky in the top of the eighth inning for the Birches and allowed just one hit through his first three innings of work.

Northampton threatened in the top of the 11th when Elijah Angstadt delivered a one-out single and Evan Hughes reached on an error before Laury loaded the bases with a successful a bunt after no one was covering first base.

But the Birches defense tightened, as Dylan Fosko grounded into a fielder’s choice at home for the second out before Michael Melosky lined out to short to end the inning and keep the game tied.

Northampton took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning on a sacrifice fly from Logan Wolfe that plated Ryan Kovach before Matthew Merced’s single scored Corrow.

Mostosky recorded six strikeouts over the next six innings, allowing just one hit before Kymer came in and kept the Northampton bats in-check to keep the game tied.

The Birches pushed across a run in the bottom of the third inning. Gethen smoked a leadoff single up the middle for the team’s first baserunner, and Shane Knappenberger’s one-out triple brought him in to cut the deficit to 2-1.

But Corrow, who struck out seven in six innings of work for Northampton, got a double play on a hard-liner to first base and a throw back to third to work out of trouble.

The Birches hit into an inning-ending double play with runners on second and third in the fifth inning, and had the bases loaded with one out in the sixth inning, but couldn’t produce any runs in either situation.

Despite the disappointment of not being able to finish the series on Monday, Birches mentor Butch Foust knows his squad is on the doorstep of something special.

“We still got tomorrow,” said Foust. “We’ve got to finish one game. If we finish that game off with one run and we hold them, we win the game and there’s no second game. This team’s not going to give up. We’re going to go down there and finish that game and see what happens.

“Both teams here today played great baseball. It’s one of those things where nobody could produce any more runs. We struggled, they struggled since the first inning. Everyone had a little pressure on them. They were trying their hardest, we just couldn’t get it going. We hit the ball, everybody hit the ball pretty much, but they just weren’t falling.”

MOVING ON

... Both teams have qualified for the regional tournament, which begins July 15.

PREVIOUSLY

... The Birches won the first game of the series 9-7.

Northampton 200 000 000 00 - 2 6 2

Birches 001 000 100 00 - 2 9 2

Corrow, Laury (7) and Angstadt; N. Mostosky, Kymer (8) and Meitzler.