Pottsville and Lehighton were both looking to rebound on Thursday after suffering lopsided defeats the previous day.

Both teams were able to put a plethora of runners on base during this Schuylkill League contest. However, Pottsville was able to take advantage of one more opportunity in a gritty 3-2 victory over the Tribe."We played Tamaqua yesterday (Wednesday) and had eight errors," said Pottsville head coach Charles Rinaldo. "If you had seen us yesterday, you would have thought we were a seventh grade team. I really challenged our kids to come back and do what they can do well. We had to be fundamental and do the little things, and they responded. I'm so proud of them."The Tide put up a quick pair of runs in the initial inning. Torie Naradko smacked an RBI single and Olivia Maley scored on an error."We've been struggling all year. I told my girls today that we have to score first. We can't be letting teams around," Rinaldo said. "That was huge. We got our runs first and it gave us some confidence."Lehighton coach Greg Poremba thought that his team's first inning mishap played a major role in determining a winner."One mistake cost us two runs, and that's the difference in the game," explained Poremba.Lehighton responded with a pair of runs over the first two frames to even up the game. Jocelyn Hunsicker and Heidi Greene each had RBI singles during the sequence."Lehighton is a very good team and we knew they would battle back," said Rinaldo. "Next thing you know, it's tied 2-2. I though it was a well-played game on both sides, no questions about it."Unfortunately for Lehighton, Pottsville's pitcher, Jessie Porter, was dialed in all day long. She only struck out one batter, but a majority of the Indians' outs were the result of groundballs. Porter blanked Lehighton for the remainder of the contest after the second frame.Pottsville was able to squeak out the eventual game-winning run in the sixth inning. Tayla Breisch led off with a double that trickled to the left-field fence. Emily Maley drove her in two batters later on a sacrifice fly to centerfield."We found a way to get her (Breisch) over to third. We put the ball in play and we just had to take a chance on the tag and send her (home), and it worked out for us today," Rinaldo said. "We're not a big hitting team. Our bats are starting to come around lately, so hopefully we're going to come out and make some noise in the second half of our season right now."Lehighton left two runners stranded on base in both the third and sixth innings. The Tribe was seemingly one hit away from tying or grabbing a lead on multiple occasions during the contest."Mistakes are made during the game, but we need to do more offensively," Poremba said. "That's just the way it went, but we'll see them again. The bottom line is, we've all lost games before. Nobody likes it. When you're losing, you have to learn how to pick yourself back up. They're learning to do that right now."DEFENSE HAS YOUR BACK …Lehighton's Autumn Bickert was also impressive on the mound. She tossed a complete game, scattered eight hits, issued one walk, but struck out none."She works really hard," Poremba said. "She's a strong kid and always stays calm. We have to create more offense, which is what it's boiling down to. We're going through a bit of a snowball effect this week. We thought we were going to bounce back right away, but it's a process and there is a lot of season left."DYNAMIC DUO …Breisch and Gabby Heimbaugh combined for four of the Tides' eight hits on the afternoon.Pottsville 200 001 0 - 3 8 3Lehighton 110 000 0 - 2 6 2Porter and Marx; Bickert and Hunsicker. W - Porter. L - Bickert.