ST. DAVIDS, Pa. - After a strong beginning at The Yard on Friday afternoon, an early lead eventually dissipated as the big inning came back to haunt Eastern Baseball once again in a 10-8 loss to Hood. The Blazers (16-17, 9-10) scored nine unanswered runs, including seven in the seventh frame, and took advantage of four errors to hang eight unearned runs on Eastern pitching.

John Beck (4-3) cruised through his first three innings of work, striking out five and allowing just three baserunners, and the Eastern offense struck first in the bottom of the third. With two outs, Evan Barks hit his team-leading third triple to right-center, and McHale brought home with an RBI single to left-center field. The Eagles added two more runs in the fourth frame on a two-run bomb from Brian Lang, his third at The Yard and fourth of the season.

However, Hood struck back in the fifth with a pair of runs to cut Eastern's advantage to one. Austin Rhue was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, and Stephen Sommer plated another run on a sacrifice fly to left field. The Blazers came to life in the seventh inning, turning its one-run deficit into a six-run lead with seven runs on four hits and two crucial Eastern errors.

The Eagles cut the lead down to four with home runs by McHale and Mark Cruser in the bottom of the seventh, and trimmed the advantage to three in the eighth on a Cruser RBI groundout. Hood pushed the lead back to four on a Jacob Saylor sacrifice fly to center field in the top of the ninth.

Eastern made a late push in the bottom of the ninth, trying to recreate the magic it had against the Blazers a year ago. McHale and Logan Klember started the inning with back-to-back singles, and a Hood fielding error allowed pinch runner Ryan Turzani to score. Sean Cottrell followed with a sacrifice fly to deep right field to score McHale and cut the Hood advantage to 10-8. However, that's as far as the Eagles' rally would go as the Blazers recorded back-to-back outs to secure the two-run triumph.

McHale finished 4-for-5 with two runs scored and a pair of RBIs, including the 14th home run of his Eastern career. Brock Langlotz and Joe Paradise each recorded a pair of hits, while Lang and Cruser drove in a pair of runs. Beck, despite the loss, allowed just one earned run while striking out seven.

Eastern (9-25, 4-15) will conclude its season series with Hood tomorrow in Frederick. Game one's first pitch is scheduled for 11:00 am.