PHILADELPHIA Lehigh Valley dropped its Carpenter Cup opener on Thursday by an 8-4 score to Burlington County New Jersey seeing its earliest exit from the Classic involving teams from Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey in a while.

The game was called in the seventh inning due to rain.Lehigh Valley jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first as Anthony Rodrigues of Wilson walked, moved to second on a ground out and scored on a single up the middle by Stroudsburg's T.J. Backer.Burlington bounced right back to take the lead for good with four runs in the bottom of the inning.The Lehigh Valley team pulled within a run at 4-3 with two in the top of the third.Rodriguez drew a one-out walk and moved to second on an infield single by Jon Cintron (Wilson). The duo pulled off a double steal and Rodriguez raced home when the Burlington catcher threw the ball past third. Cintron found his way home when Backer reached on an error.After Burlington took a 8-4 lead with two runs in the fourth and fifth innings, Lehigh Valley managed to plate one more in the fifth.Chris Rabasco of Parkland singled, took second on a single by Pen Argyl's Ryan Hunt, went to third when Zach Merkle, also of Parkland, was hit by a pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly by Phil Pierfy of Wilson.Brian Marioni was the winning pitcher, while Jacob Meyers (Whitehall) suffered the loss.Pleasant Valley's Nicholas Domenici followed Meyers on the mound, striking out two while walking four, while the Bears' James Shank got the start at catcher.Burlington County will now take on Olympic Colonial, a 3-2 winner over Delaware North on Monday at Ashburn Field in FDR Park.Lehigh Vy. 102 010 0 - 4 6 2Burlington 400 220 x - 8 10 3Meyers, Domenici (3), Mosser (5) and Shank, Merkle (5); Marioni, McDonald (5), Gucking (7) and Rykaczewski, Rapp (4). W - Marioni. L - Meyers. HR - B: Stringham (1st, 2 on).