Northern Valley rebounded from a slow start to the season to vault into a tie for third place in the Lehigh Valley Legion League entering Tuesday night's game against powerful South Parkland.

But some of the mistakes that hurt the Tigers early in the season came back to haunt them.With the score tied at one and runners on first and second in the bottom of the fifth inning, South Parkland's Kyle Novobilsky laid down a sacrifice bunt. It was fielded, but no one was covering first base, and the throw landed in the outfield, scoring two runs.The Trojans (10-4 overall) added another run in the inning, and three more in the sixth to top Northern Valley, 7-2.After finally getting over the .500 mark after starting the season 2-5, the loss drops Northern Valley back to 8-8 on the season."From where we started to where we are now, I'm so proud of the guys for fighting and not giving up," said Northern Valley coach Brad Rauch. "We want to clinch a home playoff game, but even if that doesn't happen, we want to compete in the playoffs like we do every year."The Tigers were the first on board after two scoreless innings. Evan Meixell led off the top of the third with a single, and then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Jacob Kistler hit a sacrifice fly to right field that brought Meixell to third and in scoring position. Then starting pitcher Niko Fager helped himself out with hitting a sharp liner that couldn't be fielded cleanly by the Trojans infield, and the first run was on the board.South Parkland fought back in the bottom of the fourth as Ryan Giovenco hit a run-scoring single to tie the game.The big breakthrough came in the bottom of the fifth inning when eight batters came to the plate for the Trojans.It began with a hit and a hit by pitch by Nathan Markowicz and EJ Brandt respectively. Novobilsky followed with his bunt that was fielded by Fager, who threw to first assuming it was covered, but nobody was there to take the throw, and both runners came around to score. Cullen Wadsworth brought home Novobilsky two batters later and South Parkland led 4-1.In the bottom of the sixth, it was a two-out rally that began with a fielding error by the Northern Valley infield. Novobilsky and Wadsworth followed with RBI triples before Anthony Sorrentino capped the outburst with a run-scoring double."I think their pitcher got a little tired there towards the end of the game, and I told the guys to wait for a good pitch to hit," said South Parkland coach Thomas Kahn. "They got good pitches to hit, and we have some good hitters in our lineup. It's deep and we used that to our advantage."The Tigers didn't quit. After Isaac Fatzinger and Kistler walked with two outs in the seventh, Taylor Breininger ripped a single to right field to load the bases. Dakota Laudenslager brought Fatzinger home with an RBI single to cut the lead to 7-2, but that was the last hit that came their way.Northern Valley dropped to sixth place with the loss. The league's top eight teams make the playoff tournament. Only the Lehigh Valley League tournament champ will represent the league in the regional playoffs. The regular season will determine seeds for the playoffs.The Chargers finish the season with games against the Carbon County Monarchs Thursday (at Northern Lehigh High School) and North Parkland Friday (at Orefield Middle School).The Chargers likely need one more win to secure a postseason spot.Northern Valley 001 000 1 - 2 6 4South Parkland 000 133 x - 7 11 1Fager and Wiik; Giovenco, Leaswitch (4), and Markowicz. W - Leaswitch. L - Fager.