Catasauqua head baseball coach Steve Bradley knows he and his team have to be patient.

His team is small, young and inexperienced, but the Roughies are not short on heart and hustle.

After having their scheduled opener against Northampton postponed last Friday, the Roughies opened the season with a 14-3 loss at Bangor, a game that didn’t truly reflected the game.

“We played well through five innings,” said Bradley. “We ran into a team that was really fast and they stole bases and got squeeze bunts down.

“It was a great game through five innings, and we were right there. We had some opportunities, but we didn’t execute.”

Catty fell behind when Bangor posted a three-spot in the third. However, the Roughies rallied to tie the game in the top of the fourth, as Wesley Fotta had a two-run single among his pair of hits on the afternoon.

Andrew Torres worked his way through the first three innings and recorded four strikeouts in his 71-pitch performance. Adam Reinhart replaced him and worked two scoreless innings.

“We liked the way Torres was throwing, but his pitch count got high,” said Bradley. “Adam Reinhart then came in and he did a nice job for us.”

Bangor broke the game open in the sixth against promising freshman lefthander Brandon Jenny as they plated four in the sixth and ended the game on the 10-run rule with seven in the sixth.

Both teams were sloppy in the field, as they each committed four errors.

Bradley saw his team’s defeat due to their inexperience and also to their execution.

“We made a lot of first-game mistakes,” he added. “We’re a slow team and we didn’t react well to many situations. I believe we played well overall, but we didn’t make enough plays.”

Bradley cited the play of Reinhart and catcher Cole Schiffer along with Bailey Witt, and Derek Troxell.

The Roughies got back into play Wednesday when they hosted Salisbury, and they will travel to Pen Argyl Saturday.

Bradley sees progress down the road.

“When we play Bangor again, I believe we have a good chance to beat them,” he said. “We have to mature, but I believe we can be just as good as they are.

“Our kids are fighting and working hard, and we will get better.”