The Jim Thorpe baseball team is trying to "Restore the Tradition."

Tamaqua, on the other hand, doesn't need to restore tradition. Its focus is on adding to it.On Thursday, both the rebuilding Olympians and the powerful Blue Raiders took a step toward reaching their goals.Thanks to a late three-run rally, Tamaqua escaped with a 4-3 Schuylkill League victory over Jim Thorpe.The game was a lot closer then most people expected as Tamaqua (5-1; 3-0) entered the season coming off league and District 11 championships and had given every indication during the early season that it was up to defending those titles.Meanwhile, the Olympians (0-5, 0-4) had been outscored 45-1 in their first three league games as rookie head coach Derick Reis tries to rebuild a program that has won a total of just 15 games the last five seasons."We have a young team, so we need to be patient," said Reis. "Our team slogan this year is "Restore the Tradition" and that's what we are trying to do."Jim Thorpe has a rich baseball tradition, but the last few years the program hasn't been at the level that it needs to be. It's not going to happen overnight, but today I think you saw that we are making progress toward our goal."That progress came very close to being enough to pull off one of the early-season's biggest upsets.But thanks to a sixth-inning uprising, Tamaqua was able to survive."If there is one thing I'm happy about, it's how we responded when we were behind," said Tamaqua coach Jeff Reading. "Anytime you can come-from-behind late in the game, I think its says something about your team and how it handles adversity."That's what our kids did today. Zach (Coleman) got a huge hit to tie the game and then we found a way to grind out a couple more runs to take the lead."Trailing 2-1 entering the home sixth, Tamaqua got singles from Matt Roberts and Russ Blaker. Coleman then drilled a one-out RBI double down the right field line that barely stayed fair and narrowly eluded the diving effort of the Olympians' Alex Steigerwalt.A few batters later with the bases loaded and two out, Bo Rottet got an infield single to bring in the tie-breaking run. Another infield single by Nate McDonald made it 4-2."Bryce (Miccichi) pitched a great game. He probably deserved a better fate," said Reis. "The sixth inning was tough. A bad hop single, a couple of infield singles, a ball that our right fielder almost made an incredible catch on … 99 times out of 100 all those close plays won't go against you."But Tamaqua is a great team and they have a great program. They took advantage of those things and that's what winning teams do."The Olympians weren't finished, however, as they got back-to-back two-out singles in the seventh inning from Ryan McCullough and Jordan McElmoyle that cut the deficit to 4-3 and put the tying and go-ahead runs on base.But Raider pitcher Ian Nicholls was able to get a ground out to third to end the game."Give Jim Thorpe credit. They were patient at the plate and their pitcher did a nice job of throwing strikes and keeping us off balance," said Reading. "But we need to be more focused at the plate. We can't wait until the sixth inning to get started offensively."We need to play better. If we play like we did today against some of the teams we have coming up, we're going to get smoked."Roberts had two hits, a run scored, and an RBI to lead Tamaqua offensively. Coleman added a hit, an RBI and a run scored.For Jim Thorpe, McElmoyle had three hits while McCullough, Steigerwalt and Max Pompa all chipped in two hits. Pompa also had two RBIs and scored a run.Jim Thorpe 000 020 1 - 3 12 2Tamaqua 000 103 x - 4 9 0Micciche and Everitt; Nicholls and Roberts. W-Nicholls. L-Miccichi.