Anthracite head coach Doug Yoder received a pleasant surprise in the opening round of the District 18 Little League tournament.

While he knows his team can hit, he believes his club is a small-ball squad and not a power-hitting machine.On Friday, his players did both in registering an 8-5 victory over Jim Thorpe."We're a smaller team and I've been telling them we have to piece together singles," said Yoder. "I was surprised by the home runs, to be honest."After using three singles, a double and a couple of errors to plate five runs in the third inning, Anthracite capped their scoring in the fourth by hitting a pair of longballs.Josh Robin drilled a solo homer to center while Blake Morgans blasted a two-run shot to deep left.The roundtrippers proved important as Thorpe rallied for two runs in the sixth and had two runners on base when the game ended."They really hit the ball hard," said JT mentor Mike Snisky. "They swung at first-pitch strikes. They swung at fastballs. I think we took too many pitches. We struck out (11) times which isn't indicative of us. We didn't hit like we should, but our hats are off to them."The kids kept their heads up and kept battling. We had the tying run at the plate. They're not making excuses. They know they didn't hit the ball the way they can but we'll be ready for the next one."Part of the reason Thorpe might not have hit the ball as well as they had hoped for was the pitching of Aaron Miller.Miller relieved starter Jake Taras, who took a hard grounder off his leg, in the top of the third and gave up an RBI single to Colin Binder to give Thorpe a 2-0 lead. But after that, he used an effective curve ball and quality fastball to frustrate most of the JT hitters."Aaron mixed it up pretty well," said Yoder, whose reliever struck out seven and walked one. "He had a good curveball and was throwing it for strikes and was humming the fastball by them. He did real well for us.""He mixed his pitches and kept us off-balanced," said Snisky.Snisky's team started strong, getting a solo homer from Nathan Rosahac in the first and Binder's run-scoring single in the third, but the momentum quickly turned in the home third.Singles by Miller and Robin (3-for-3) set the table for Derek Pavlik, who doubled home both runners to tie the score. Pavlik (3-for-3) took third base on the throw home and scored the go-ahead run on a grounder off the bat of Bryon Smith, who reached on an error. After another miscue and a walk, Matt Santore singled home two more runs to give Anthracite its 5-2 advantage.Sabastian Rodriguez (2-for-3) got one of the runs back for Jim Thorpe with a solo homer in the top of the fourth, but the winners countered with the blasts from Robin and Morgans.Thorpe fought back in its final at-bat but came up just short. Gunner Lienhard and Max Schlenner both singled and Noah Snisky (2-for-4) doubled home both runners. A walk brought the tying run to the plate in Rosahac (2-for-4), but his sinking fly to center was snared by a sliding Chuck Beyers."That last inning was a little nerve-wracking," said Yoder, whose team now faces Towamensing on Monday. "Chuck made a great play in center there to end the game."Jim Thorpe 101 102 - 5 10 2Anthracite 005 30x - 8 11 2Rosahac, Goff (5) and Schwartz; Taras, Miller (3) and Smith. W - Miller. L - Rosahac. HR: Jim Thorpe - Rosahac (1st, none on), Rodriguez (4th, none on); Anthracite - Robin (4th, none on), Morgans (4th, one on).