The Jim Thorpe 11-12 year old baseball team have been on quite the roller coaster ride as of late. Just as a roller coaster is designed their journey through the District 18 tournament started with an uphill climb. JT lost its first game of the tourney to Anthracite 8-5, putting it in a one and done scenario the rest of the way.

However, Jim Thorpe dug in and started to pick up speed, winning three straight games, scoring a total of 35 runs in that span to earn itself a match-up with perennial power Valley West on Tuesday night. Valley West proved to create too steep of a hill for Jim Thorpe to get over, ending JT's run with a 13-2 victory.Valley West will now go on to face TIMES NEWS area squad Towamensing at Towamensing Township Field in the loser's bracket final on Thursday night at 6 p.m. That winner will then match-up with Valley East in the District 18 Championship game on Saturday.Jim Thorpe did their best to stick with the powerful Valley West squad and actually held the lead for a bit when Noah Snisky led off the bottom of the third inning with a solo homerun. JT's lead would be short lived, when Valley West answered backed swiftly in the fourth. Brian Bartal led off the inning with a solo homerun and was followed by teammates Chris Latoff and Jacob Bellizia, whom reached base on a double and single respectively. Corey Zientek would bring home Latoff and Bellizia with a single, giving West a 3-1 advantage going into the bottom of the fourth.Jim Thorpe starting pitcher Sebastian Rodriguez did a good job of slowing down the Valley West bats with a slow approach of his own, but after the third the flood gates opened."Our gameplan coming in was to keep the ball low in the strikezone and at the knees and when we did that we were successful. They were hitting the ball into the ground and our middle infielders did a good job of making those plays," said Jim Thorpe coach Mike Snisky. "It's just when we left the ball even up a bit they would crush it. They're a great hitting team, so give them all the credit in the world."The fifth and sixth inning went even worse for Thorpe as West started a homerun barrage. The main culprit was West's Jordan Stefanick. "The Diesel" as the home public address announcer coined him, blasted two homeruns, a three run shot in the fifth and a grand slam in the sixth to bust the game wide open. Zientek also added a two run homerun in the fifth and before JT could blink an eye it was 13-2.Jim Thorpe's only other run came in the fifth when Valley West pitcher Lance Book walked in a run."It was 1-0 and then Brian (Bartal) hit that homerun and that got us going," said Valley West coach Bob Bartal. "It took us awhile to get going and their pitcher kept us off balance in the beginning of the game, but our bats got going and overall our bats have been heating up and that's what we need. Our pitching was great today too. We kept everybody at the 35 pitch limit, so now everybody is available after one day's rest for Towamensing."For Jim Thorpe, its magical ride is over, but to come back and win three games after losing its opening round game is a testament to the character of its players."I'm proud of all the kids, they kept their heads up after that first loss and I don't think people expected us to get this far," said Snisky. "They made a nice run, 13 teams started this tournament and there were four left and we were one of them. We're all very proud of that."Brian Schwartz led Jim Thorpe with three hits and Rodriguez had two hits. Colin Binder and Evan Dart added hits as well and Austin Williams and Gunner Lienhard came off the bench to come through with a hit apiece.Valley West 000 364 - 13 12 0Jim Thorpe 001 010 - 2 10 2Zientek, Latoff (3), Book (5), Vayda (6), and McGowan; Rodriguez, Binder (5), Snisky (6), and Schwartz; HR - Snisky (third, solo), Bartal (fourth, solo), Stefanick (fifth, two on), Zientek (fifth, one on), Stefanick (sixth, grand slam); W - Latoff L - Rodriguez.