Raiders edge Thorpe

The Tamaqua and Jim Thorpe softball teams have certainly had frustrating seasons up to this point.

Tamaqua had just one win heading into its match-up with host Jim Thorpe and the Olympians had zero wins on the season.

However, the two teams showed yesterday that their lack of wins is not a result of lack of effort as the Raiders and Olympians fought hard for seven innings. At the end of the day it was Tamaqua that came out on top, using a two-run fourth to clip Thorpe, 2-1, for the Schuylkill League Division 1 victory.

That two-run fourth can be connected to Tamaqua's Alyssa Gerhard, who slapped a double to left field scoring the Raiders' Shayna Dietrich and Ashley VanBuren. It was the first of two doubles on the day for Gerhard.

"Getting that big hit for us today has definitely boosted my confidence," said Gerhard. "I need to get up to the plate and be confident and think about how far I'm going to hit it, not if I'm going to hit it. I think today definitely helped out in that department."

Carly Sassaman also had a nice afternoon hitting the ball for Tamaqua. Sassaman went 3-for-3 with three singles.

"I wasn't real confident hitting the ball early in the season," said Sassaman. "I had a good game today and it showed me that I can hit the ball consistently every time I get up to the plate."

The Lady Olympians on the other hand, who have shot themselves in the foot a lot this season with their fielding mistakes played well defensively, but had a tough time manufacturing runs.

Jim Thorpe had plenty of opportunities to go ahead with Tamaqua walking eight batters throughout the game. The Olympians could only muster three hits on the day and were shutdown in the sixth and seventh inning.

Tamaqua also had some trouble scoring runs and left a lot of base runners on as well, getting 11 hits, but only could scoring two runs.

"It was a little shaky for us early on, but the girls really stepped up today," said Tamaqua head coach Jillian Barron. "We got the big hit when we needed it, although I would have liked to see us drive in some more runs.

"I'm also proud of my freshman pitcher Shayna Dietrich for battling through some of those walks and only allowing three hits. She's our number one pitcher and we threw her to the wolves right away this season."

Brittany Caufman had two hits, and Courtney Santos also had a hit for the Olympians.

With the win Tamaqua improved to 2-12 on the season.

Tamaqua 000 200 0 - 2 11 1

Jim Thorpe 000 010 0 - 1 3 0

Dietrich and Zancofsky; Caufman and Weber; W - Dietrich L - Caufman