One of the things that usually plagues a young and inexperienced baseball team is the inability to overcome adversity in a game.

For both Lehighton and Jim Thorpe, that has certainly been the case this season.However, on Thursday the two young squads made significant strides in battling through in-game adversity. The two teams battled hard for seven innings with Lehighton coming away with a 4-3 Division 1 Schuylkill League victory over Jim Thorpe.Early, it looked like the Tribe was going to rout the Olympians as it jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.Cody Scherer reached on an error to start the inning and the Lehighton bats did the rest.Jordan Knappenberger followed with a single. Brody Hydro then knocked in Scherer with an RBI single, and Brady Niehoff came through with the big hit of the inning, a double that scored two runs.Nick Skrincosky was responsible for the last run of the first, producing an RBI single, scoring Niehoff.It was the start the Indians have been waiting for this season."Scoring four runs in one inning is a huge improvement for us," said Lehighton coach Brian Polaha. "We haven't been the kind of team to produce runs like that, so it's great for our kids to gain that confidence. If we can continue to get off to good starts like that, we can really compete this season."The Olympians, who found themselves in a four-run deficit, didn't lay down or panic like they would have over the last few seasons.Instead, they battled, scoring a run in the second, third and fourth innings to crawl within one.The Olympian defense was a big reason for that as it held Lehighton scoreless over the next six innings of play. Thorpe was competing, which is exactly what head coach Derick Reis is looking for from his ball club."There are definitely some positives that we can take away from today," said Reis. "We didn't back down when we got down early and we made some nice defensive plays today to keep us in the game. That's what we're looking for. We want to compete day in and day out."Lehighton (2-3; 1-2) was able to keep Jim Thorpe at bay over the last three innings and a big reason for that was Nieoff's performance on the mound. He had a roller coaster outing, but anytime he needed to get out of a jam he did, especially a potential game-losing jam in the bottom of the seventh.Thorpe had bases loaded with two outs after three walks. Nieoff got No. 3 hitter Jordan McEmoyle to ground out to the short stop to give Lehighton the victory."I try not to get rattled out there and today was one of those game where I could've definitely got rattled," said Nieoff. "Jim Thorpe played us tough, but we were able to hold them off and make the plays to get the win."For Lehighton, Knappenberger led the Indians with hits, getting two, including a triple.For Jim Thorpe, Dom Pompa came through with a hit and two RBIs and Brendan Carroll and Alex Steigerwalt each added a hit apiece. Will Kovolenko had two hits on the day to lead the Olympians (1-4; 0-3).Lehighton 400 000 0 - 4 7 4Jim Thorpe 011 100 0 - 3 5 2Niehoff and Scherer; Micciche and Joyce. W - Niehoff L - Micciche.