BEL AIR, Md. – The Harford baseball team came back from a four-run deficit to defeat Lehigh Carbon, 15-4, in a Saturday matinee.
 
No. 20 Harford (42-8) came out of the blocks slow, be it due to a late return from a road doubleheader Friday or the morning start time of 11 a.m., but found a way to kick it into high gear on offense and finish strong. The Fighting Owls put crooked numbers on the board in the fifth and seventh inning to run away with their 42^nd win of the season, one shy of last year's total and just three away from the program record of 45 back in 2012.
 
Six runs in the fifth inning and seven more in the seventh turned an early nail-biter into a route in favor of the Fighting Owls. Down 4-1 in the fifth with two outs, Ben Bomberger dropped a single into left field to plate a pair and pull Harford within one. Kyle Burger followed up with a double to right center, scoring Bomberger from first to knot things up at 4-4.
 
An infield single by Andrew Valichka and heads-up base running by Burger put Harford in front, 5-4. Valichka hit a groundball into the 5-6 hole and beat the throw across the diamond. Burger, knowing Valichka would beat the throw, rounded third base and never slowed down to score easily and put Harford up 6-4. Valichka would advance to second on the errant throw by the short stop. Ty Williams plated Valichka with a double to right center and was brought home by a Jack Hamner RBI single, completing a six run, six hit rally by the Fighting Owls.
 
Joe Burton smacked his 12^th home run of the season, a solo shot, in the sixth to pad Harford's lead. He crushed a 1-0 pitch to center to put the Fighting Owls up 8-4.
 
The seventh inning would prove to be the final inning thanks to another big inning powered by a pair of long balls. Following a pinch hit walk by JP Vail, Toby Sponseller hit a towering two-run shot well-beyond the blue monster. The blast was Sponseller's fourth home run of the season.
 
After a bases loaded, two-run single by Burton, Daulton Weeks finished off a grinding, seven pitch at-bat with a walk-off, three-run homer to centerfield. Weeks increased his team-record homer total to 16 on the season. The Fighting Owls have 98 home runs as a team, third best in the nation.
 
Like the offense, Nick Delp (1-0) started the game off getting less than ideal results but accounted for himself well as the game went on. Lehigh Carbon (16-17) jumped on Delp early to take a 2-0 lead on just two pitches. Darren Smith laced a sharp single through the left side on Delp's first pitch and Trevor Musselman launched a no-doubter over the blue monster on his second pitch. Musselman hit a second long ball in his second at-bat against Delp. He hit a solo bomb to left center in the third inning to put the Cougars up 3-0.
 
After surrendering an RBI single in the fourth inning, Delp buckled down and held Lehigh Carbon off the board for the next three innings, retiring the next eight batters he faced. He finished the game with three strikeouts and no walks over seven innings in his first start of the season.
 
Harford will take on CCBC Essex Monday evening at 6 p.m. to finish off the MD JUCO portion of their schedule.