The roller coaster season for the Mentor Cardinals continued in a May 6 road contest at Brunswick.
Unfortunately for Coach Jeff Haase and company, it was a bumpy part of the ride as the Blue Devils rallied for a 6-5 victory in nine innings.
Mentor (10-9) led by scores of 4-0 and 5-1 before Brunswick staged its comeback to force extra innings and eventually claim the win.
The Blue Devils scored two in the sixth and two more in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game and ruin what would have been another winning trip to the mound by Michael Hritz. Hritz pitched into the ninth before giving way after 8 1/3 innings of work. Brunswick plated the winning run with two outs in the ninth inning.
“We needed a clutch hit and never got it,” Haase said. “We had plenty of opportunities to put them away and never did. It was a learning experience and we have to get back at it.”
Mentor had seven hits – all singles. The Cardinals scored a run in the second and three in the third to take a 4-0 lead. Mentor took a 5-1 lead to the bottom of the sixth, but the Blue Devils scored four times over the sixth and seventh to send the game to extra innings.
Tyler Thompson and Nathan Birtley each had a hit and an RBI for the Cardinals. Matt Eiswerth stole three bases for Mentor.
