Left on base.

That's exactly where a great deal of Jim Thorpe baserunners were stranded during a Schuylkill League Division 1 contest against Lehighton on Tuesday.The Olympians paid for their inability to capitalize on the scoring threats.The Indians' Damian Mele, who worked in and out of trouble on the mound in the early innings, got stronger as the game wore on. Mele retired the final nine Olympian batters and finished with a complete game shutout as the Tribe defeated Jim Thorpe, 7-0."He got into some trouble with some walks early on, but we were able to do enough to get out of it," Lehighton coach Brian Polaha said. "During innings five through seven, he really settled in. He pounded the strike zone toward the end of the game. He was great today."The Tribe gave Mele all of the run support he needed in the top of the second inning.Terry Buss got the party started when he scorched a single down the third base line, which drove in the game's first run. Cody Scherer and Zach Crum each delivered RBIs before the frame was over to give Lehighton a 3-0 lead.Jim Thorpe never scored, but it had ample opportunities to do so.It appeared that the Olympians would immediately respond in the bottom of the second. Thorpe loaded the bases, but ultimately came up empty. Mele forced a couple of groundouts to end the first of many Olympian threats."It's been the story of our season," said Jim Thorpe head coach Derick Reis. "We can't come through and get that big hit. We came out and we were about as flat as you can be. We had no intensity and that's what it comes down to. It's very, very disappointing."After leaving two more men on base in the third inning, Jim Thorpe threatened once again in the fourth as Max Pompa singled to right field, which resulted in runners on the corners with nobody out. Pompa then tried to swipe second base, but he was thrown out on a rope from Lehighton catcher Cody Scherer.Chris Valdez drew a walk immediately after Pompa was thrown out, which put runners back on the corners. Brendan Carroll followed with a routine chopper to Lehighton third basemen, Colln Haupt. The Olympian runner on third base broke for home, but was gunned down by Haupt as Scherer applied the tag. The inning ended on a harmless groundball to shortstop, as Jim Thorpe left a total of seven runners on base during the first four innings."They're giving us runs and we're making base-running mistakes," said Reis. "I keep preaching that to our guys that we have to play a clean game if we're going to win."It's going to come down to the team that makes the fewest amount of mistakes. We continue to make big mistakes in big situations."That fourth inning sequence seemed to trend each team in different directions."We got a great throw from Cody (Scherer) to get a runner stealing second," said Polaha about the fourth-inning sequence. We made some nice plays in the field that inning, which definitely kept momentum on our side."We made the plays in the field that we needed to in order to get ourselves out of jams."Lehighton added four more insurance runs across the final three innings, which was more than enough help for Mele.STANDOUT OLYMPIAN … Jake Burkhart had Jim Thorpe's lone multi-hit performance as he recorded a pair of singles.BALANCED EFFORT … Eight different Indians reached base during the Schuylkill League victory.Lehighton 030 021 1 - 7 9 1Jim Thorpe 000 000 0 - 0 5 3Mele and Scherer; Porembo, Carroll (5), Burkhart (7) and Joyce. W - Mele. L - Porembo.