The last time Lehigh Valley's Carpenter Cup run came to an end in the first round was in 2006. Their opponent was Burlington County out of New Jersey.

On Thursday, Lehigh Valley looked to start their journey to get back to the championship game, a place where their 2013 run came to an end. But standing in the way once again was Burlington County, and the result was much like their 2006 meeting.

Following a brief 1-0 lead for Lehigh Valley in the top of the first, Burlington County scored four in the bottom half of the frame to regain control. Lehigh Valley made it a one-run game in the third, but Burlington County's bats were too much scoring two in each of the fourth and fifth to secure the 8-4 victory in a rain-shortened game on Thursday at Ashburn Field in FDR Park.

Thursday's loss marked just the sixth time in the Carpenter Cup's 22-year history that Lehigh Valley lost in their first game.

"The thing that's difficult here is that we work extremely hard to give every kid the same experience that I believe we've given our kids for 22 years," head coach J.F. Pirro said. "I just don't feel like we did that this year, so we're disappointed.

We worked really hard to give the kids the same quality experience."

Beyond just the score after the first inning a 4-3 lead for Burlington County it was the way Lehigh Valley fell behind that seemed to deal the largest blow.

A three-run home run for Collin Stringham gave Burlington County a 4-1 advantage early. His shot out of left field narrowly escaped being a foul ball. Instead, it was a swing that ultimately decided the rest of the game.

"The ball that went out couldn't have been fair by more than six inches," Pirro aid. "It just tucked inside the left field foul line. It certainly looked like it was going foul, and it looked like it might even come down.

"That's a hard way to lose three runs right off the bat."

Lehigh Valley responded with two runs in the third inning, capped off by a run from Jon Cintron, who crossed home plate after T.J. Backer reached based on a Burlington County error.

However, Burlington County had another answer in the batter's box. Christian DeLuca's RBI-double scored Tyler O'Dell in the fifth to begin a span of four unanswered runs. Adam Rapp's single in the fourth scored DeLuca to make it a 6-3 advantage for Burlington County.

Chris Rabasco scored on an RBI-fly out from Phil Phierfy that kept Lehigh Valley within striking distance. But runs by Joe Paolini and Isaiah Hall gave Burlington County an 8-4 advantage, a mark they would go on to win by after the game was called after seven innings due to rain.

"We remained in the game for most of those innings, and we came back again and had opportunities" Pirro said. "But then when they end the game due to weather, you're sort of out of opportunities.

"Burlington is a very good team year after year, [and] so have we been. It's just a matter of matching two of the best teams in the history of the tournament against one another in the first round, and somebody has to go."