With a weather prediction for snow later in the day, the Jim Thorpe-Tamaqua baseball game was moved up to a morning start time on Monday.

Tamaqua then went out and created its own blizzard of scoring, using a seven-run second inning to roll to a 13-3 Schuylkill League victory.

The Blue Raiders’ win was their first of the season.

“We’ve been in some close games that we’ve lost this year, but we’re still learning how to play to win instead of playing not to lose,” said Tamaqua coach Jeff Reading. “Today we did a lot of little things right. We had patient at-bats that led to some timely hits.

“It was also good to see us bounce back after we were down by three before we came up to hit in the first inning.”

The Olympians (3-6) jumped out to their early lead when Chip Baldassano singled to left field and James Lordi belted an opposite field home run over the left field fence. Ian Henkels then walked, stole second, moved to third on an error and scored on a wild pitch.

The lead didn’t last long, however.

Tamaqua answered with four runs in the bottom of the first with a hit batter, two walks, an infield single by Luke Kane and an errant throw to take a one-run lead. Raider relief pitcher Wyatt Steigerwalt pitched a scoreless second to set up the home team’s explosion in the bottom half.

An infield single by Lucas Kamant started the rally that saw the Raiders bat around. Lucas Milot, Nate Fannock, Gianni Valentine, Chase Andrews and Kamont all drove in runs as well as Luke Kane, who added the only extra base hit with an RBI-double.

The seven-run blizzard seemed to put a chill on the Olympians for the rest of the game.

“We didn’t come ready to play today,” said Jim Thorpe head coach Joe Marykwas. “We didn’t throw strikes. We didn’t field well, and it was an overall lack of focus at the plate, too.”

Olympian pitchers walked six batters, threw two wild pitches, and hit two others in the five-inning mercy rule loss. In the field they committed four errors. The Raiders took advantage of all the miscues by adding six stolen bases in the rout.

Steigerwalt was pressed into pitching duties for Tamaqua due to a first-inning injury, and he was outstanding. In 4 1/3 innings, he allowed no runs on three hits, fanned three and issued three bases on balls.

The Raiders pounded out nine hits, with Kane and Steigerwalt getting two apiece.

Jim Thorpe was led by Ian Henkels with two hits.

THEY’RE OUT ... The game was less than two innings old and three starting players - two from Tamaqua and one from Jim Thorpe - had already left with injuries.

RAPID ROTATIONS ... Due to injuries, the game score, and pitching issues, the Olympians had to make several defensive changes. During the five-inning game, Thorpe moved four players from one position to another.

PLATE COVERAGE ... The Raiders had seven different players cross the plate with runs. Kamant scored three times; Milot, Steigerwalt, and Kane scored twice; and Fannock, Mason Ligenza and Cian McLaughlin all scored once.

Jim Thorpe 300 00 - 3 5 4

Tamaqua 470 11 - 13 9 3

Edwards, Craigie (3), Baldassano (5) and Wimmer; Moyer, Steigerwalt (1) and Valentine. W - Steigerwalt. L - Edwards. HR: Jim Thorpe - Lordi (1st, one on).