HOLMES TOWNSHIP — It’s hard to keep the Wynford Royals’ offense down for very long. Mohawk did a nice job of that for six innings.

Mohawk starter Reese Hannam held the Royals to just two runs over six innings, as the Warriors held a 3-2 lead, entering the seventh inning.

Wynford, however, scored the tying run in the seventh, then added two more in the eighth and one more in the ninth to gain a 6-5 win in a key Northern 10 Athletic Conference baseball game Friday night.

With the win, the Royals remained in a tie for first place in the N10 at 5-1, 8-2 overall. Mohawk fell to 1-6, 3-11.

Wynford coach Tom Smith said that his team didn’t play well.

“We’ve been telling these boys they have to find a way to win; last year we lost a lot of close games,” Smith said. “That’s the bright spot, they fought and never gave up.”

Mohawk lost yet another one-run decision. The Warriors lost a 3-2 game to a good Upper Sandusky team on Thursday before falling to the league-leading Royals.

“I thought we played pretty well overall, we made some really good plays on defense,” Mohawk coach Eric Hoover said. “I thought we hit the ball pretty well, for the most part.

“We left a few in scoring position, but you’re going to have that through the course of a game. I don’t think it was excessive.”

Mohawk took a 1-0 lead on an unearned run off Wynford starter Spencer Miller, then got a double from Travis Geary and a single by Ryan Dietrich in the third, scoring twice to take a 3-0 lead in the top of the third.

Wynford came back in the bottom of the third, scoring twice on four hits. Kendall Blair singled, Miller slashed a double to left-center, Dylon Robinson added a double to right-center and Cainen Allen singled.

From that point, both pitchers settled down and threw scoreless baseball until the bottom of the seventh.

Needing a run to tie, Wynford got a Grant McGuire single, a Robinson single and an Allen sacrifice fly to center, tying the game at 3-3, sending it into extra innings.

McGuire came in to pitch for the Royals in the seventh and Mohawk got two runs in the eighth without getting a hit. Two Wynford errors led to the runs.

In the bottom of the eighth, Wynford got an Avery Langenderfer single and a walk to Kaiden Blair before Zach Harer singled, driving in two runs and tying the game.

An error by Mohawk opened up things for Wynford in the ninth, and back-to-back singles Allen and Sam Collene got the winning run home. Collene’s hit was a bloop single down the right-field line.

“We had (14) hits, stranded 10, and only scored six runs with that many hits, so we weren’t getting the key hit,” Smith said. “We were popping up too much. Mohawk played really well. They had three or four double plays on us, I think. They played good defense today.”

Hoover felt that his team played well.

“Probably early on, we could have gotten out of those first two innings quicker, we left them off the hook on some pop-ups, a couple went foul, and one dropped fair, and those have to be caught,” Hoover said.

Miller went six innings for the Royals, permitting four hits, striking out three, and walking one. McGuire went the final three, striking out four and walking one.

Smith said that his pitching depth is beginning to come to the forefront.

“Spencer always throws strikes,” Smith said. “He’s always been our number one, I guess. Grant’s our closer this year, one-run game, and we brought him in, and he ended up going three, which is the most he’s gone all year. We have some depth in pitching. Sam’s been throwing good, and Spencer throws good; Grant’s been throwing good, and Kendall’s thrown a couple of really nice games. So, we’re starting to get some depth there.”

Hannam worked seven strong innings for the Warriors, allowing three runs, striking out none, and walking three. Brayden Chester went the last two frames.

Hoover said that his pitching in recent games has been much better.

“Liam (Shellhouse) and Reese both had good outings the last two games and gave us a chance to win,” Hoover said. “That’s all you can ask for out of your starters and we weren’t doing much of that the previous couple of weeks. We did a better job of giving free bases tonight, we’ve been having trouble with that.”

Box score

Mohawk      102 000 020         5        6       3

Wynford      002 000 121         6      14      4

WP: Grant McGuire (4 SO, 1 W)

LP: Brayden Chester (0 SO, 1 W)

HR: None.

Triples: None.

Doubles: (W) Dylon Robinson, Sam Collene; (M) Reese Hannam.

Multiple hits: (M) Nathan Geary, Travis Geary, Brayden Chester; (W) Spencer Miller, Dylon Robinson, Kaiden Blair.

Records: Mohawk 3-11, 1-6 N10; Wynford 8-2, 5-1 N10.

Next: Seneca East at Mohawk, Monday; Wynford at Crestline, Saturday.