MHS drops lead, loses 8-6 to Francis Howell in extra innings

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Media by Kelsey Lenox

Taylor Clark, senior, drives the ball over the left field fence in the third inning.

After a building a 6-1 lead, MHS dropped their non-conference game against Francis Howell 8-6 in nine innings on Wednesday night at MHS.

Seniors Lillie Knesel and Taylor Clark both hit home runs in the bottom of the third but it wasn’t enough as Francis Howell scored seven unanswered runs to close out the game.

Francis Howell scored five runs in the top of the seventh inning, two of which came from errors.

MHS was unable to answer back in the bottom of the seventh inning which caused the game to go into extra innings. After a scoreless eighth inning, Francis Howell scored in the top of the ninth to give them a two run lead. MHS stranded two baserunners in the bottom of the inning giving Francis Howell the win.

This is only the second loss for MHS as their record stands at 21-2 with a commanding lead at the top of their district.

Even though the Mustangs suffered an upsetting loss, there were many positives to come out of the game.

Adam Starling, assistant coach, reflected on the performance and picked up on areas of improvement for the team moving forward towards postseason play.

“Hopefully this means that it’s a motivating factor that we can learn from mistakes that we made so we don’t make the same mistakes when it matters in the postseason,” Starling said.

MHS has three regular season games left until they start postseason play on Wed, Oct. 4. The team looks to get back on track against Francis Howell North on Fri, Sept. 22.