PENDEL LEAGUE: Northampton scores in the 7th, edges Horsham

Despite having severe storms around the Hatboro-Horsham area, the Northampton Orioles survived a thrilling game against the Horsham Astros with a final score of 5-4 at Hatboro-Horsham High School Tuesday evening.

The Orioles were able to strike first in the bottom of the second inning when Eddie Parry scored Sean Byles to give his team a 1-0 lead.

Horsham was able to bounce right back in the top of the fourth inning when Drew Paserini earned a 2-out base hit to score Bill Parave and tie the game at 1-1.

The O’s were able to get the lead back immediately in the bottom of the fourth when Parry earned his second RBI to give Northampton a 2-1 lead after four innings.

Northampton increased its lead to 4-1 in the bottom of the fifth when Ian Diaz crushed a two-run homer that also scored Shaun Stackhouse.

The Astros would not go down quietly later in the top of the sixth inning when Parave crushed a triple to score two more runs.

Parave later came around to score on a double base hit by Colin Mattice to tie the game at 4-4 after six innings.

Despite getting the first two batters on base, the Astros couldn’t cash in during the top of the seventh, which meant the Orioles only had to score one in the bottom of the seventh.

After Stackhouse grounded out to start the inning, Cody Kutler reached first base on an infield single to get the rally going.

After Kutler stole second base, the homerun hitter Diaz was walked intentionally to get two runners on base with one out.

Things didn’t go as planned as the relief pitcher, Alex Bendzlowicz, popped out to shortstop to keep the runners on first and second base with two outs.

Darnell Muse, who was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts before his last at bat, came up big with two strikes and two outs in the bottom of the seventh with a single base hit to left field that scored Kutler from second and give Northampton a thrilling 5-4 victory.

“I knew it was going to come down to my fourth or fifth at bat,” said Muse. “I was able to adjust to the last pitch and decided to swing towards third base.”

Northampton head coach Joe Stoll was thrilled with his team’s performance with the poor weather conditions in the area.

“A lot of our guys are younger and they have been in these situations before,” said Stoll. “We have a lot of guys from previous championship teams and we wanted them to try to not freak out when we lost the lead.”

“Today was all about staying loose and staying cool,” added Stoll. “They knew that they could’ve bounced back from losing the lead and they did.”

Horsham Astro head coach Steven Weaver was happy to get the game in with the bad weather around them.

“Northampton had some timely hitting,” said Weaver. “But we showed that we can get guys on base and move them around; we just have to work on the lineup a little bit.”

Horsham starting pitcher Mike Iller earned the loss despite throwing 6.2 innings and striking out eight Orioles.

Bendzlowicz earned the victory going for 1.2 relief innings giving up two hits and striking out two Astros.

Northampton starting pitcher Noah Hartwell earned a no decision despite throwing for 5.1 innings and striking out five Orioles.

The Northampton Orioles will look for their fourth consecutive victory on Sunday, July 8 with a doubleheader at Munro Park against the Warminster Warriors. First pitch of game one is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.

The Horsham Astros will look to bounce back on Tuesday, July 10 at Hatboro-Horsham High School against the Central Bucks Brewers at 6:15 p.m.