LIMEPORT — The basic script for Northern Valley has been to fall behind early, stage a comeback, and rely on strong relief pitching to hold the lead and get the win. Even though that script can be a little risky, it produced three wins in their first four games of the PA Connie Mack state tournament being played at Limeport Stadium.

On Wednesday, the Chargers used a different script, as they grabbed an early lead, then buried Chestnut Hill to win their fourth game of the tournament with a 13-2 victory to stay alive in the loser’s bracket.

The scoring started in the bottom of the first when Watson Church led off the game with a double, was sacrificed to third and then scored on an RBI groundout by Kaden Moyer, showing how fundamentally sound the Chargers offense can be.

The next inning, with the bases loaded and one out, Christopher Vargas singled to drive in a run, while a wild pitch brought in the second run of the inning and Church’s RBI single made it 4-0.

Northern Valley again loaded the bases, as walks to both Cole Dynda and Coy Daubert produced RBIs, and Parker Schaffer got hit by a pitch to give him an RBI in the inning before Chestnut Hill managed to get the final out, but Northern Valley held a 7-0 lead through the first two innings.

The Chargers broke the game open in the third when both Church and Brayden Buskirk walked with two outs, and a routine flyball to left by Moyer was misplayed for an error, producing one run. Dynda singled to load the bases and Daubert — who has been the offensive star for Northern Valley — launched a flyball that went over the head of the center fielder and bounced up the hill in front of the center field fence for a three-run triple to make it 11-0. Four straight walks brought in two more runs, with Landon Rosado and Vargas both picking up an RBI on their walks.

“I think our offense has played really well. We have been patient at the plate, and we don’t strike out a lot,” said Buskirk, who singled, drew two walks and scored twice in Wednesday’s win. “We have been able to put together some pretty big rallies and that’s helped us a lot.”

Chestnut Hill came back to get two runs in the top of the fifth to cut it to a 13-2 lead.

With one of its wins coming via a forfeit, Northern Valley has scored 35 runs in the four games where it has taken the field. While the run totals are impressive, and the Chargers are batting .316 (31-98) in those games, what stands out is how opportunistic the team has been. Their opponents have committed 15 errors that have led to 22 unearned runs for Northern Valley, and opposing pitchers have issued 25 walks in those four games.

As the team’s catcher, Buskirk has had a front row seat for the heroics of a pitching staff that has held its opponents to a .247 (23-93) average and has compiled a 3.65 ERA in the tournament with 19 strikeouts in 23 innings of work.

“We have some really good pitchers on this team and that helps a lot,” said Buskirk. “Most of these guys are pretty easy to catch, but there are a couple of them that get a lot of movement and spin on their pitches and that can be a little tough sometimes, especially with runners on base. Overall though, they’re right around the strike zone and are pretty easy to catch.”

Dynda was perfect through three-and-two-thirds innings to up his tournament stats to six-and-two-thirds innings, allowing no hits, one hit batter and recording 10 strikeouts before exiting to save his pitch count and allow him to pitch later in the tournament, if needed.

“I was really fortunate because I had just about everything working. My fastball, my slider, my change-up, my curve were all working pretty well, pretty much everything,” said Dynda. “I felt pretty good in the bullpen and my arm felt good and ready to go.”

WHAT LIES AHEAD … Northern Valley will face Southern Lehigh Thursday night in an elimination game starting at 5 p.m. The winner of that game will face the loser of Thursday’s game between Morelanders and South Parkland, which are the two remaining undefeated teams in the tournament, with the winner going into the finals. Northern Valley lost to Morelanders 11-3 earlier in the tournament and has not faced South Parkland in the postseason, but lost to SP 4-3 during the regular season before beating earning an 8-6 win in the Lehigh Valley Connie Mack semifinals.

Chestnut Hill 000 02 - 2 3 3

Northern Vy. 166 0x - 13 7 0

Gibson, Walsh (2), Jackson (3), Hackford (4) and Kerper; Dynda, Rosado (4) and Buskirk. W - Dynda. L - Gibson.