Northern Lehigh and Jim Thorpe were both looking for a bounce back win.

After an impressive seven-game winning streak, the Bulldogs entered Friday’s Colonial League contest having suffered two straight defeats. The Olympians, meanwhile, saw their five-game win streak ended by Saucon Valley in their last contest and were hoping to rebound.

Thanks to a huge six-run fifth inning, that featured timely hitting and taking advantage of some miscues, Northern Lehigh was the team that found its way again and pulled out a 13-8 victory.

“When we came off wins against Notre Dame and Moravian we struggled to hit,” said Bulldog head coach Gerald Kresge. “We struggled (with our timing). And early in this game, we struggled to get on time. It took us three innings of preaching to them to be on time and finally we got it back.

“That’s how we’ve been hitting the whole year. We just went into a little bit of a slide there where we were just struggling. We went back into the cage and did some work, and it paid off today.”

The Olympians pushed across a run in the top of the fifth inning on Tyler Hoherchak’s RBI single to tie the score at 4-4, but Nolehi batted around in the bottom half to blow the game open.

Kresge’s club lumped together four hits, a walk, a hit batter and a couple of Thorpe errors to turn a close game into a 10-4 advantage. The two infield miscues occurred with the bases loaded and two outs, bringing in the first two tallies. Coy Daubert followed with a three-run double, while Parker Schaffer delivered an RBI single.

“We finally got some confidence at the plate there,” said Kresge. “We always talk about the next man up, next play, next pitch, and today each guy was coming through. Once we got into that situation, I saw the confidence grow at the plate.”

Giving the Bulldogs extra outs in the frame doomed the visitors and negated a good start in which the Olympians grabbed an early 3-0 lead.

“I thought we started well,” said Thorpe mentor Joe Marykwas. “We left a couple runners on base that we shouldn’t have, but that’s part of baseball. But you can’t make six errors in a game and expect to win. That hurt our pitching because my pitcher threw extra pitches. It probably cost him 20-25 pitches.

“We could have been out of that inning ... we made an error and then we had another error, and then the floodgates opened. They’re a good team. They hit the baseball, so you can’t give them that many extra chances. You tack on walks and errors and we gave them a bunch of extra base runners today.”

Unfortunately for the Olympians, another miscue resulted in a run in the sixth. Avery Kabrick added a run-scoring single in the inning while a fielder’s choice grounder also chased home a Bulldog player to expand the margin to 13-4.

JT’s reserves made things a bit interesting by putting up a four-spot in the seventh, highlighted by Luke Bosi’s two-run hit, but the deficit was just too much to overcome.

“We play (Saturday) so we have to flush this one,” said Marykwas. “We’re not going to stew on it, but we also don’t get to correct it. They know what they did wrong, and they just have to be better. At this point, there’s nothing else we can do. We have to be at the field at 10:30 in the morning. We just have to have a short memory.”

For the Bulldogs, getting back in the win column is something Kresge hopes will start another run of success.

“(In the past) one thing they didn’t have was being used to winning,” he said. “So to see them go into that stretch and gain confidence ... now they’re expecting to step on the field, compete and win. It’s a different mindset. Hoping that propels us throughout the rest of the year.”

BIG HITTERS ... For Nolehi, Daubert also added a sacrifice fly and ended the game with four RBIs. Schaffer collected two hits and knocked in two runs, while Chris Vargas added a pair of hits and two runs. Brayden Buskirk had just one hit but scored four times. For Thorpe, Cole Lazorick and Zack Murphy both had two hits.

TOUGH FIELD ... All six Olympian errors came fielding balls in the infield. Kresge, whose team didn’t commit an error, did say the Bulldog field is a bit tricky. “Overall, we’re pretty strong defensively,” he said. “This field right now is fast and bumpy, so errors are not uncommon here.”

BACK IN ACTION ... Both teams play non-league games today. Northern Lehigh travels to Hamburg, and Jim Thorpe hosts Pottsville.

Jim Thorpe 102 010 4 - 8 13 6

Northern Lehigh 001 363 x - 13 11 0

Hess, Lazorick (5), Strohl (5) and Murphy; Schaffer, Kabrick (6), Christman (7), Kabrick (7) and Buskirk. W - Schaffer. L - Hess.

Records: Jim Thorpe (7-5; 7-5); Northern Lehigh (8-5; 7-5).