You might think a team that started the year by winning just two of its first seven games, but wound up playing in the winner's backet final of the post-season tournament would think that it's playing with house money.

That's not the approach the Northern Valley Chargers are taking after a disappointing 7-6 loss to South Parkland that will make the Chargers' road to a Lehigh Valley Legion championship much tougher.Pitcher Ben Cordova was cruising and appeared to have things well in hand after his team scored two times in the top of the sixth to grab a 6-2 lead over the Trojans.In the bottom of the inning, Cordova got the first out before trouble started to set in as the next seven batters would reach base on six singles and a walk. A pair of hits were muffed in the outfield, allowing South Parkland to take extra advantage on the basepaths. Anthony Sorrentino's single to left-center brought in two runs that put South Parkland up 7-6."I don't think Ben ran out of gas, I just think that earlier in the game, we were making plays behind him and then we made some mistakes and he started to try to be too perfect with some of his pitches," said Northern Valley coach Brad Rauch. "He's one of the senior guys on this team and I was going to stick with him because he's earned that, and because I thought he would work out of it."It looked like Northern Valley would strike right back in the top of the seventh when Jake Kistler led off with a double to right-center, putting the tying run in scoring position. Michael Jenkins, who came on in relief to pitch the seventh for the Trojans got a strike out, a ground ball to first and then ended the game with another strikeout to stop any Chargers rally before it could really get started.In their half of the sixth, Northern Valley just missed scoring their seventh run of the game when Evan Meixsell was thrown out at third and it was ruled that the out occurred prior to Tyler Wiik crossing the plate.Besides handling things on the mound for Northern Valley, Cordova drove in Josh Williamson with an RBI single in the first and would collect two more hits, draw a walk and score two runs for Northern Valley. Wiik delivered a two-run single in the third to give Northern Valley a 3-1 lead at the time."You look in the dugout now, and these kids are pretty down, but I told them, 'we're not done, yet. This just makes our path tougher,'" said Rauch. "For us to even be here is a surprise to a lot of people, but these kids aren't done yet. They can feel down now, but tomorrow, it's just back to work."Northern Valley will play the winner of the Lower Macungie at West Allentown game, with the winner advancing to play South Parkland on Sunday.No. Valley 102 102 0 - 6 10 2So. Parkland 101 005 x - 7 9 0Cordova and Wiik; Giovenco, Horn (4), Jenkins (7) and Markowicz W - Horn, L - Cordova, S - Jenkins