As the story of one team ends, another continues for its opponent.

After being delayed by rain for two straight days, Lehighton returned to Jim Thorpe on Friday to resume the District 11 4A baseball quarterfinals.

The two rivals sent their aces to the mound and fought tooth-and-nail for nine innings until the Olympians finally managed to break the ice and win 1-0 on an RBI single by Zack Murphy.

“That’s our first district win since 1992, so it’s been a long time,” said Thorpe head coach Joe Marykwas. “Our guys persevered all year. They never quit and they just keep believing that they’re going to go, and they finally got one across.”

Despite having home field advantage, Jim Thorpe failed to qualify for the Colonial League playoffs as the Indians got in on a tiebreaker. That set the stage for Lehighton to go on a Cinderella run and reach the league championship, while the Olympians watched and patiently waited for their chance to take their rivals down in districts.

The ballclubs completed the first inning on Wednesday before rain postponed the action until Friday. This helped the two pitchers, Cole Dietz of the Tribe and Brody Schrantz from Thorpe, as their pitch counts were reset, allowing them to go deeper into the ballgame.

Fans were treated to a dazzling display of pitching from both aces as zeros decorated the scoresheet all the way into extra frames.

Dietz was efficient from batter to batter and relied mostly on getting soft contact for his defense to clean up. Schrantz mowed his opposition down, finishing his performance with 10 strikeouts while allowing just three hits, one walk, and one runner in scoring position.

Lehighton head coach J.C. Dietz knew that Schrantz was going to be a challenge for his players to overcome, knowing that offense was a weakness with his team.

“We don’t score a lot,” he said. “We struggle on offense, and you can’t win the game when you don’t score a run. We actually didn’t have many opportunities to score a run.

“A lot of that is a credit to Brody who is very good, but you’re going to have that with young kids.”

The Olympians gave Dietz a moment of trouble in the eighth with a leadoff double by Tyler Hoherchak and a sacrifice bunt to get him to third with one out. The Tribe defense stepped up, particularly on a backpedaling catch from third baseman Brady Stubits, and helped get Dietz out of the jam.

After Schrantz struck out the side in the ninth, the Olympians came up in the bottom half and set up the same scenario. A leadoff single from Schrantz, a walk, and a sacrifice bunt by Kaden Hess put the winning run 90 feet away with one out.

This time, the Olympians got the job done as Murphy found a hole in left-center field to bring home Schrantz and send Jim Thorpe to the district semifinals.

“Since game one, we’ve been waiting for this, and it was just a huge team win for us,” Schrantz said. “We’ve been mentally locked in all week even after all the rain. Even though some things didn’t go our way, we stayed in the game and played great baseball.”

“The last time we made a district run was in Little League, and we wanted to get back into this position,” said Hess. “We just stayed loose throughout the game and it played out for us.”

While the Olympians move on, the Indians’ campaign comes to an end after exceeding numerous expectations.

Despite this being the season finale, coach Dietz will not soon forget what his team accomplished and is already looking forward to a new chapter with them.

“Their silver medal they got in the Colonial League as the underdogs was a fun run, and sometimes things have to end. I have all of these players, except the seniors, in senior Connie Mack; every single one of them. I’m going to be coaching them all summer, and I told them to be proud of what they did and just continue to get better.”

KEEP IT GOING ... Jim Thorpe looks to continue its journey through the district playoffs as it will take on Saucon Valley in the semifinals on Monday at 1 p.m. at Easton. The Panthers defeated the Olympians 7-2 earlier this season at Jim Thorpe.

Lehighton 000 000 000 - 0 3 0

Jim Thorpe 000 000 001 - 1 7 0

Dietz and Goida; Schrantz and Murphy. W - Schrantz. L - Dietz.

Records: Lehighton (11-13); Jim Thorpe (11-10).