Tamaqua opened the season with thrilling wins in baseball and softball over the weekend.

BASEBALLN'western-TamaquaThe Blue Raiders rallied for six runs in the third inning for a 7-6 non-league win over the Tigers.Brady Akins and Zach Coleman had bio hits in the inning for Tamaqua.Niko Fager, Jake Augustus and Tyler Wiik had two hits each for Northwestern.Thad Zuber came on in relief to pick up his first varsity win.Northwestern 002 202 0 - 6 9 5Tamaqua 106 000 x - 7 5 2Fager, White (4), Haas (6) and Wiik; Blaker, Zuber (4) and Rother. W - Zuber (1-0). L - Fager.SOFTBALLN'western-TamaquaThe Blue Raiders scored a run in the bottom of the seventh after the Tigers tied it up to edge Northwestern Lehigh 5-4 in a non-league contest.In the top of the seventh, Northwestern's Brooke Wehr's two-run single tied the game at 4-4.Brooke Zellner went two-for-four with a double and an RBI single for Tamaqua. Cailyn Joseph also had two singles and an RBI.For Northwestern, Lydia Danner, Wehr and Kaitlyn Bowers has two hits each.Pedersen went the distance for the win, striking out eight and walking one.Northwestern 000 200 2 - 4 7 5Tamaqua 003 001 1 - 5 11 2Akelaitis, Smith (3) and Wehr; Pedersen and Zellner. W - Pedersen. L - Smith.TRACKJT in Pirate InvitationalJim Thorpe (97) finished fourth at the Pirate Invitational over the weekend. Quakertown (204) won the team title.Paige Pfeifer won the pole vault clearing 10-02. Brooke Cope (shot put, 31-08.5), Autumn Cope (javelin, 116-06) and Erin Shigo (discus, 82-10) were second in their events.On the boys side, Dylan Bucior won the 1600 meter run in 4:34.79 and finished second in the 3200 with a time of 10:30.95. Rayan Green finished first in the long jump (20-01) and triple jump (43-08.25). He also took second (15.79) in the 110-meter hurdles.