Palmerton didn’t wait long into the spring season to turn to its rally caps in a road contest against Jim Thorpe on Monday.

Trailing 3-1 going into the top of the seventh, the Bomber bats came alive as they scored five runs in the final inning to escape with a 6-3 non-league victory over the Olympians.

“This team fights,” said Palmerton head coach Tyler Svetik. “There are a bunch of fighters on this team, and they don’t ever give up.

“Getting to 2-0 before heading into league play is big, and for a while there it looked we were going to be 1-1, so it’s a big win for us, and once again proud of the way our guys fought back.”

Jim Thorpe was able to take control of the game early, putting together a solid first inning.

Ian Henkels and Garrett Lienhard scored runs for the Olympians in the first, with Richie Strack and Nik Schwartz both coming through with RBIs.

Thorpe pitcher Adam Romanchik cruised, pitching five strong innings, giving up no earned runs and just four hits, while striking out six. A strong start in both the hitting and pitching department gave the Olympians a two-run cushion going into the seventh.

“Adam threw the ball great today,” said Jim Thorpe head coach Joe Marykwas. “He was moving the ball in and out, and he definitely had some good stuff today. But he was up around 65-70 pitches and in this cooler weather, we don’t like pitching our guys any more than that.

“And then our guys that came into relief didn’t pitch bad at all. They just hit some well-placed balls, and at the end of the day that happens in the game of baseball sometimes. Also, offensively you’d like to see us keep momentum going after putting up three runs over the first two innings, but give them credit. They fought back and made some plays.”

Thorpe opened the top of the seventh getting a strikeout, but then the Bombers (2-0) started their rally. Daniel Lucykanish got the inning going for Palmerton with a double to right field, followed by a Trey Sterling single and then a hit batsman to load the bases with one out.

A dribbler by Jacob Grammes put the Bombers in business, getting two across to tie the game, followed by a sharp grounder by Chase Reph that Thorpe wasn’t able to handle - which resulted in two more runs coming across to give Palmerton a 5-3 lead. An Olympian error a few batters later would result in another run before Thorpe was able to get the final two outs.

“I think we hit a few at them earlier in the game, but then we settled down and we were a little more patient, and then we were able to take advantage of some base runners from some walks and a couple of guys getting hit,” said Svetik.

“Pitching-wise too, we settled down as well and I’m proud of all those guys. And then late in the game, our relief guys pounded the zone and kept them off the board.”

Thorpe was never able to get its offense going in the seventh. Chip Baldassano led off the inning with a hit, but Palmerton didn’t allow any other hits the rest of the inning to close out the game.

CLOSING IT OUT … Palmerton relief pitchers Nate Stroup and Brayden Hosier combined for one hit, four strikeouts and zero runs over four innings.

LEADERS … Sterling led the Bombers with three hits, while Reph finished with two RBIs. For Thorpe, Baldassano, Schwartz and Henkels all had two hits.

Palmerton 100 000 5 - 6 9 1

Jim Thorpe 210 000 0 - 3 7 3

Grammes, N. Stroup (4), Hosier (7); Romanchik, Edwards (6), Lienhard (7). W - Stroup. L - Edwards. S - Hosier.