Staff photo / Preston Byers Cardinal Mooney pitcher Ryan Reese celebrates after a strikeout during the Cardinals’ win at Austintown Fitch on Thursday.

AUSTINTOWN — Cardinal Mooney outlasted Austintown Fitch in a marathon of a baseball game Thursday evening in Austintown.

More than three-and-half hours after the Falcons delivered the first pitch, the Cardinals made their 18-9 victory official.

“You never know what’s gonna happen in high school baseball,” Mooney coach Eddie Reese said after the cold, rainy and windy win.

Mooney jumped out ahead early in Thursday’s non-league matchup, as a wild pitch by Fitch starter Zac Zabosky and sacrifice fly by Vince Gentile gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

Fitch’s pitching continued to struggle in the second, and Mooney capitalized, scoring another pair of runs to take a 4-0 advantage.

Mooney truly broke the game wide open in the third inning, at least for the time being. Facing three different pitchers in the half-inning, the Cardinals scored five runs and appeared set to cruise the rest of the way.

However, the lead, Reese said, may have created a false sense of security.

“We had a big lead, then we got comfortable and we didn’t put the game away,” Reese said. “Gave them a chance. They came back, and we provided them a lot of runners and runs, and they had some key hits.”

Offensively, Fitch scored its first run of the game in the third inning. And on the mound, Todd Jones made the most of his relief appearance.

Jones, who entered the game in the third, hit the first batter he faced with a pitch but rebounded with a bases-loaded groundout to get out of the jam.

“Todd’s got a lot of guts. He’s got a lot of fire,” Fitch head coach Joe Paris said. “Todd’s a sophomore. He’s young, he wants to be a part of the varsity. And this is the second or third time he’s been out there, and each time I put him out there, he’s getting a little bit better. He threw a little bit yesterday in the league game against Boardman, and he struggled a little bit, and he was nervous, and that’s why I wanted to come back with him tonight and give him another shot. And he did a great job for us, keeping us in the game.”

In the fourth and fifth innings, Jones kept the Cardinals off the board, setting the stage for a furious Falcons comeback.

Mason Petridis drew a leadoff walk before Fitch recorded three straight singles, driving home Petridis and loading the bases in the process.

Then Mooney walked five of the subsequent six batters. The walks, a wild pitch and sacrifice fly resulted in seven runs in the inning for the Falcons, who trailed by one entering the sixth.

After a disastrous fifth inning, Mooney, led by reliever Ryan Reese, began to stabilize. Reese faced just four batters, keeping the Cardinals ahead by one run entering the final inning.

“He hit the zone for the most part. He battled, gave us a chance. That’s what I tell our pitchers: Just give us a chance to make plays and make them earn runs. [He] found the strike zone pretty well,” Eddie Reese said of Ryan Reese.

Much like Fitch did in the fifth, Mooney took advantage of its opponent’s pitching woes in the seventh.

The Falcons walked seven of the first eight batters in the inning and hit two more, allowing the Cardinals to bat around the order nearly twice while scoring nine runs.

Ryan Reese finished the game, albeit after surrendering a run, in a relatively brisk bottom of the seventh.

With the win, Mooney improves to 4-3 on the season. The Cardinals, who shut out rival Ursuline on Wednesday, will have a much-needed day off Friday before facing Struthers on Saturday.

The Falcons are scheduled to visit Howland Friday, which they hope will be their first win of the season. Fitch is now 0-6 after Thursday’s loss.

Paris said he thought the older players on the team were possibly putting too much pressure on themselves, resulting in errors both on the field and mentally.

He said, though, that he was encouraged by the play of his underclassmen.

“We have been struggling all season with our pitching staff throwing strikes,” Paris said. “Tonight, we walked 14 guys and hit five more, and unfortunately, we did put some guys on the mound that hadn’t had a lot of experience…

“But the thing I’m happy with is, I took our starters out, I put the young kids in, [and] they brought us back in the game. We cut it to one — down 9-1 and they brought us back. They showed a lot of heart and a lot of fire.”

Due to the varsity game, which had been initially scheduled for Bob Cene Park in Struthers, running much longer than anticipated, Paris said he and Eddie Reese agreed to send the umpires home despite a junior varsity game being slated to begin shortly afterward. He said the JV teams would play a three-inning scrimmage against each other instead of a game.