As teams shows signs of growth and improvement, sometimes it can hit a brick wall.

In Jim Thorpe’s case, the wall they hit was named Addie Smith.

Northern Lehigh took its home field on Friday to battle the Olympians in a Colonial League contest. Coming off a three-game losing streak, Smith gave the Bulldogs seven scoreless innings and set up her team to strike offensively both early and often.

Thorpe fought hard but was eventually overcome by a five-run fifth, allowing Nolehi to emerge with an 8-0 win.

“We knew we really needed this win because our last couple of games, we lost,” Smith said. “This really boosted our confidence. I knew I wasn’t doing my best at the plate, so I knew how to combat that with my pitching.”

Early results suggested the Bulldogs would run away with the contest. A JT error and an RBI single from McKenzie Chrusial gave the home team a quick 2-0 lead in the first.

Zeros, however, filled the scoreboard for the next three and a half frames. Smith operated in the circle on cruise control, pitching to soft contact that her defense managed to clean up even when faced with runners on base.

For the Olympians, defense and strong pitching by Madison Schwartz kept the Bulldog offense in check.

With JT’s assistant coach Jim Clifford filling in for unavailable head coach Kathy Levins, he was not surprised with the team’s effort.

“We expected to be in this game, and we were,” he said. “The young players are getting better every year. The older players are hanging in there, and we’re fighting and we’re battling.”

Unfortunately for Thorpe, the dam was only able to hold for so long as Northern Lehigh got the offensive breakthrough it was looking for in the fifth. A couple errors and five singles brought five Bulldog runners across the plate. Kylee Snyder, Fiona Jones, and Smith also picked up RBIs.

Nolehi added another run in the sixth and closed things out with a game-ending double play to preserve the shutout for Smith.

“We knew when we have a tight game like that, we have to combat with our bats,” Smith said. “That’s who we are; we’re a good hitting team. We actually came early to get some hitting in because we knew we needed to hit today.”

The Bulldogs snapped their three-game losing streak and look to get back to playing at the level they know they can play.

Head coach Daniel Caruso believes that his junior-heavy team is now set up to reach its peak and potentially carry that same success long term.

“It’s good to get this win today, and it’s what we needed to right this ship a little bit,” he said. “The last couple games had a few bumps in the road, but the juniors, if they get rolling, we’re going to peak at the right time this year and even the next year.”

On the visitor’s side, the score truly doesn’t indicate the strides Jim Thorpe has made, which is something that Clifford wants his team to understand more than anything.

“We had two bad innings; that was about it,” he said. “Other than that, they played well. We just weren’t getting any hits when we needed to. We’re going to work on some hitting. We’re going to have to square the ball up and drive it some place instead of just hitting ground balls.”

FINAL LINE ... Addie Smith finished her shutout striking out four while only allowing four hits and one walk. Kelsie Huff earned the lone JT walk, and the four hits came from Schrantz, Ryah Confer, Isabella Sully and Kaylee Anderson.

WEEKEND REST ... Both teams get a break over the weekend before returning to action on Tuesday. Northern Lehigh travels to Catasauqua, while Thorpe hosts Northwestern.

Jim Thorpe 000 000 0 - 0 4 3

No. Lehigh 200 051 x - 8 10 1

Schwartz and Confer; Smith and Gad, Reinhard (7). W - Smith. L - Schwartz.

Records: Jim Thorpe (4-9; 2-9); Northern Lehigh (7-5; 6-5).