UNIONTOWN — Crest High didn’t let the disappointment of a pair of losses in its season-opener linger for long.
The Lancers, who fell twice to Iola on Tuesday, were back on the baseball diamond Thursday at Uniontown.
A pair of late two-out rallies, the first coming in the top of the seventh to force extra innings, and the second in the top of the ninth, where Jensen Barker had the tie-breaking single in a come-from-behind 8-6 victory.
The Lancers decided not to wait nearly as long to dispense of any drama in the nightcap, scoring 14 runs in the top of the first to romp to a 22-0 victory.
In Game 1, Crest trailed 3-0 after the first inning and 6-4 after four, and were one inning away from a loss before the dramatic rally.
Jerry Rodriguez got things started in the top of the seventh with a leadoff single, but he remained there after a fly ball and strikeout pushed Crest to its final out.
Fortunately, the Lancers had the heart of the order coming to bat.
Rogan Weir ripped the first pitch he saw for a double, scoring Rodriguez, and closing the gap to 6-5. Ryan Golden followed with a single to center to chase Weir home and tie the score.
Rodriguez, who pitched the final three innings of the game for Crest, worked around a pair of eighth-inning walks, to keep the score tied.
Golden’s infield single jump started the winning rally with one out in the top of the ninth. He singled and moved to second on a fielding error. A strikeout followed, putting Barker at the plate. He ripped a 1-0 single to center, pushing across Golden for a 7-6 advantage. Barker moved to second on a passed ball, stole third and then came home to score on a second passed ball for the final run.
Rodriguez allowed a one-out single in the bottom of the inning, but the runner advanced no further as Rodriguez ended the game with a strikeout and fly ball to center.
Uniontown took its early lead, courtesy of a pair of first-inning Lancer fielding errors.
Brayden Goodell and Rodriguez each connected on two-run doubles in the top of the second to push Crest on top, 4-3. Uniontown rallied for two in the third and one in the fourth to take a 6-4 lead, but Crest curtailed further damage by throwing out an Eagle runner at the plate, setting up the late dramatics.
Drake Weir got the start, striking out seven over 4.1 innings of work. He scattered seven hits and allowed three earned runs. Zander Robb struck out three over 1.2 innings of scoreless relief, allowing one hit. Rodriguez struck out five over his three innings of one-hit, no-run relief.
Golden went 3-for-5 to pace the offense, while Rodriguez and Barker each had two hits, including a double. Goodell, Drake Weir and Rogan Weir also had doubles.
