Jim Thorpe had to bounce back on Friday.

And the Olympians have a starting pitcher who knows how to do it.Tyler Baird pitched into the sixth inning, and bought just enough time for the Thorpe bats to wake up during a 7-2 non-league victory over Panther Valley."Tyler is a great story for the program," said Jim Thorpe head coach Derick Reis. "He is a kid that was actually cut as a freshman, and came back to be one of our top two guys. He is resilient, and he was being faced with that as a 14-year-old kid. It's a testament to him and how hard he works. He continues to work hard, get better, and he does a great job for us. He throws a ton of strikes and his curveball is much improved. He has an idea of what he's doing out there and that's important."Although Baird ultimately earned a no-decision, he yielded just two runs and struck out nine during five and two-thirds innings of work."I felt really good and I knew it was going to be a tough game," said Baird. "Coming here is always tough. We fight until the very end all the time. It's really good, we needed that bounce back after (Thursday) night."The game was scoreless after four innings. Baird's counterpart, Jon Hafer, also gave up just two runs over five innings of work, which kept the Panthers in a competitive position throughout the contest."I was happy with his performance," said Panther Valley head coach Rich Evanko. "He threw really well and he had Jim Thorpe on its toes a little bit. We just didn't help him out when we needed to. Offensively, we didn't make the adjustments early enough. Tyler threw an excellent game, but we had an opportunity to capitalize with runners on base, and we didn't today. He got us today, and we have to tip our cap."With the game knotted at two, as both teams were into their bullpens, the Olympians finally created some separation in the final inning.Max Pompa kicked off the seventh with a leadoff single, Aaron Joyce drew a walk, and Nick Porembo smashed an RBI single up the middle for the go-ahead run. The Olympians (6-3) loaded the bases and scored another pair after two walks forced runners to cross the plate. Chris Valdez drove in a run after a Panthers infield error, and Noah Snisky hit a single to give Thorpe its 7-2 lead heading into the home-half of the final inning. Panther Valley (2-3) went down in order to end the game."We were really anxious to see how they kids would respond after a heartbreaking loss (Thursday) night," said Reis, whose team lost a tough game against North Schuylkill on a play at the plate. "We just kept telling our guys to keep plugging away and that we would break through eventually. On top of that, we always seem to struggle when we come here. It's always a fight against these guys. Any time we come out of here with a win it's important."HOW PV SCORED ... In the fifth, Anthony Michalik led off and stole second, which led to Tristan Blasko hitting a rope down the third base line that scored him. Aaron Miller hit a single in the sixth and later scored after Thorpe threw the ball around too much.NICK'S BIG GAME ... Porembo finished with two hits and three RBIs for the Olympians. He relieved Baird on the mound in the sixth, and earned the win while recording the final four outs. "Bouncing back from (Thursday) is big," he said. "It's good to get a win against our rival. I feel pretty good, and we definitely have a lot of arms, which helps us with our schedule being as compressed as it is with these makeups."STRANDED ... Panther Valley left runners on second and third base in both of the first two innings. PV had at least one runner reach base in each frame - except the seventh. "We got guys on, we just couldn't get that next hit or ball-in-play to create something," said Evanko. "I was happy with the effort and we made things happen. I was happy with where they've been the last two games. They're starting to get in rhythm now that we're on the field."Jim Thorpe 000 020 5 - 7 6 4Panther Vy. 000 011 0 - 2 8 3Baird, Porembo (6) and A. Joyce; Hafer, Kokinda (6), Miller (7) and Goida. W - Porembo. L - Kokinda.