Gabe Wagner found out that it can be just as important to bat ninth in the lineup as it is to lead off or hit cleanup.

The Lehighton junior ripped a leadoff double in the bottom of the sixth inning and scored the only run of the game on Thursday as the Indians edged Palmerton, 1-0, in a non-league contest.Palmerton's Garrett Perschy was pitching a gem, allowing just one hit through five innings until Wagner laced a double into the gap in left-center to get the winning rally going. Donovan Buchinsky sacrificed Wagner to third and with one out, John Herman grounded out to shortstop to drive in the run.The Bombers loaded the bases in the top of the seventh, but winning pitcher Ben Cordova buckled down and got the win. Cordova went the distance in the season-opener, giving up just three hits, striking out four, and walking one."Anytime you win your first game it's a great feeling," said Lehighton head coach Brian Polaha. "It was a pretty well played game. We would have liked to get more hits, but what a difference a couple of days makes. Three days ago here, we played our second scrimmage and gave up 20 runs. We couldn't throw a strike and couldn't field the ball. We had a little bit of offense that day and today was the opposite."As long as we're throwing strikes and making plays you can keep yourself in the game. Certainly today wasn't a masterpiece for us offensively. We struck out quite a bit. But we got the leadoff double, bunted him over and played small ball to manufacture a run. I've got to give our guys credit."Palmerton head coach Mike Svetik saw some bright spots in his team despite the loss."You've got to give all of the credit to the kid (Wagner) hitting in the ninth hole", said Svetik. He comes up in the sixth and gets a leadoff double. That was big."On the double play early, a couple of inches the other way and that ball gets through and we probably score a run there. But that's baseball. An inch or two here makes a big difference in the ball game."Svetik is confident the Bombers will bounce back."We just have to put this one behind us," he said. "There are plenty of teams that start the season 1-0 and end up 1-19 and teams that start 0-1 and end up 19-1. It hurts, but we didn't do some things batting that we should have and that'll be addressed and we'll get better for it."HARD LUCK LOSS ... The Indians only got one runner past first against Perschy, who fanned eight and walked two. "There was no doubt Garrett was going to pitch like that for us," said Svetik. "He pitched in both scrimmages for us, so I had all of the confidence in the world in him. He's a stud."INDIAN ESCAPES ... The Bombers had two runners on in the second, only to hit into an inning-ending double play. They also stranded a runner on second in the fourth inning and left the bases filled in the sixth. "The double play was big because they had a couple of baserunners on at that time," said Polaha. "That was big for us to get out of that inning."Palmerton 000 000 0 - 0 3 0Lehighton 000 001 x - 1 2 2Perschy and Mooney; Cordova and Wagner. W - Cordova. L - Perschy.