NANTICOKE, Pa. - The Northampton Baseball suffered a rare conference defeat on Thursday, falling to Luzerne County in game one of their doubleheader, 1-0, and then rebounding to take game two, 5-2.

The Spartans were 28-4 all-time in EPAC play heading into the doubleheader with the Trailblazers on Thursday, with all four conference losses coming at the hands of Montgomery County Community College, but Luzerne held the Spartan bats scoreless in game one, pushing across the winning run in the bottom of the 6th to earn the 1-0 victory.  

Dylan Borawski (Hatfield, PA /North Penn ) took the loss for Northampton despite only allowing 3 hits and striking out 6 in 6 innings of work.  Troy Van Houten (Saylorsburg, PA/Pleasant Valley ), Ben Hauser (Pipersville, PA/Central Bucks - East ), Seever Hoyak (Bethlehem, PA /Notre Dame - Green Pond ) and Borawski had Northampton's only hits.  

In game two, Luzerne jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead, but a 2-run single from Luini Ortiz (Allentown, PA /Emmaus ) in the 2nd inning and a RBI ground out from Seever Hoyak (Bethlehem, PA /Notre Dame - Green Pond ) in the 6th proved to be the key hits to propel NCC to a 5-2 victory.  Ortiz finished 2 for 2, Jake Miller (Allentown, PA /Liberty ) was 1 for 3 with a stolen base and run scored and Ben Hauser (Pipersville, PA/Central Bucks - East ) was 1 for 3 as the Spartans managed 6 hits in game two.  Sean Williams (Belvidere, NJ /Notre Dame - Green Pond ) earned the win on the mound, improving to 4-2, allowing 2 hits, 2 runs and striking out 8 in 6 innings of work.  Joey Deperno (Stroudsburg, PA /Stroudsburg ) pitched a scoreless 7th to preserve the victory.  

The doubleheader split puts Northampton at 16-13 overall, 7-7 in Region XIX and 6-2 in conference, while Luzerne is now 2-5 overall, 2-5 in Region XIX and 2-3 in conference play.

The Spartans are now off until Sunday when the host 4th ranked Cumberland County College in Region XIX doubleheader set to start at noon.