BUCYRUS — For the third time in the 12 days, it was close but no cigar for the Bucyrus baseball team.

The Redmen once again had a lead going into the seventh inning, only to see Seneca East explode for 11 runs in the top of the inning to beat Bucyrus, 20-10, in a Northern 10 Athletic Conference game at Veterans’ Field.

“This is the third or fourth time (this season),” Bucyrus coach Sean Maudsley agreed. “We’re still learning from it. We just have to learn to throw strikes at the end and not throw the ball around.”

Monday’s game was a case-in-point. The Redmen walked five Tigers and hit one, while committing three errors, which led to the Seneca East (11-8, 8-5) uprising.

“After we got (Malachi Bayless) out, the other pitcher struggled to throw strikes,” Tigers’ coach Rick Bowerman said. “We did a good job of being patient at the plate and taking the walks when they gave them to us. We got a couple pitches to hit, and we drove them and scored some runs.”

Fifteen Seneca East batters went to the plate with only five getting hits. But with six extra baserunners thanks to the walks and hit batter, the Tigers parlayed the hits into 11 runs.

As bizarre as the seventh inning was, the rest of the game nearly matched it. The Tigers started the game by scoring four first inning runs, three of which were unearned — and scored after two were out — thanks to four Bucyrus (1-16, 1-13) errors.

“The first few innings — not taking anything away from Bucyrus — neither team wanted to win,” Bowerman said. “’Let’s make mistakes and let the other team into it.’”

To Bowerman’s point, Bucyrus answered with three runs in the bottom of the first, aided by a Seneca East error. It was game on.

“It’s been our defense that has held us together this year,” Maudsley said. “And then the last 2-3 games it’s started to swing the other way. We wish the defense was still solid.

“Our hitting is coming along — 15 or 16 hits today. We are putting the ball in play lately. We’re always going to give ourselves a chance when we put the ball in play.”

The Tigers kept the pressure on through the first five innings, getting the leadoff hitter in each frame on base and they all scored. One run came across in innings two, three and four and two more in the fifth, to raise the Seneca East run total to nine.

“That was big — getting the leadoff runner on,” Bowerman said. “We did a good job either stealing, moving up on passed balls, doing a nice job at the plate. We just kept adding on.”

Bucyrus tied the game at 5-5 in the second with two runs, bunching three hits and a walk. The big blow of the frame was a double by Chris Neale. The Redmen added a run in the fourth to cut their deficit to 7-6.

Seneca East padded the lead with two runs in the top of the fifth with two hit batters, a sacrifice, an RBI single by Blake Martin, and a wild pitch.

The biggest inning for the Redmen started when Bayless was safe on a two-base outfield error. Four singles and a walk plated four runs and Bucyrus suddenly had its first lead of the game, 10-9, heading into the last inning.

But the seventh inning spun out of control and the Redmen could not recover.

“”We’ve told them all year they can play with anybody, and we have, for the most part, all year,” Maudsley said. “We can play against good teams, and we have this year. Sometimes, I don’t think they believe in themselves. I think today they showed themselves they can hit. I hope this gives them a lot of confidence into the rest of the week.”

Mason Foos led the Tigers with two singles and five runs scored. Caden Fritz and Jake Bowerman had two singles. Martin had a triple and Justin Reiter had a double. Aiden Hines, Blake Foos, and Seth Mathias singled.

Cooper Skeel ground out six innings on the mound, getting touched for 10 runs on 15 hits. He struck out five and walked two.

“(Cooper) didn’t have his best stuff but he just kind of gutted through it,” Bowerman said. “In the seventh, I had to take him out. He was up over 100 pitches. That was huge. We needed that from him.”

Weston Delaney had four hits for Bucyrus. Bayless had three hits, while Cody Pennington and Kam Lewis had two singles each. Neale added a double and Riley Parked, Noah Burke, Gabe Higginbotham, and Tyson McDaniel singled.

Bayless pitched into the seventh inning and stood to be the winner to start the seventh. He struck out six and walked five, giving up 11 runs on five hits.

“This was the first time all year he’s been past the fourth inning,” Maudsley said. “We wanted to stretch him a little today. He was pitching pretty good, and we didn’t have a lot of help behind him early and it wasn’t his fault.”

“Bucyrus put the ball in play,” Bowerman said. “They hit the ball. Did they smoke it? No, but they put it in play, found holes. They put us in a position where I wasn’t comfortable at all going into the seventh inning.”

“Even in hat last inning — (the Tigers) score 11 runs in that last inning and we came up to bat, they put one of their better pitchers (Fritz) on the mound and we get two guys on base,” Maudsley said. “The one thing I like about this group, all year, long, when they’re up to bat, they don’t realize what the score is. They just play hard and try to do the right things at bat.”

Box score

Seneca East   411 120 (11)    20    11     3

Bucyrus          320 104 0          10    16     9

WP: Cooper Skeel (5 SO, 2 W)

LP: Malachi Bayless (6 SO, 5 W)

HR: None.

Triples: (SE) Blake Foos.

Doubles: (SE) Justin Reiter; (B) Chris Neale.

Multiple hits: (SE) Caden Fritz, Mason Foos, Jake Bowerman; (B) Weston Delaney 4, Malachi Bayless 3, Cody Pennington, Kam Lewis.

Records: Seneca East 11-8, 8-5 N10; Bucyrus 1-16, 1-13 N10.

Next: Seneca East at Buckeye Central, Tuesday; Bucyrus at Crestline, Tuesday.