Bishop Guertin coach Scott Painter address his team following Friday's 9-7 loss to Pinkerton in Derry that ended a 10-game winning streak. (Photo by Dan Doyon)

DERRY – After getting off to a sluggish start to begin the season, the Bishop Guertin High School baseball team responded with a 10-game winning streak that put the Cardinals in a good position with the Division I tournament fast approaching.

But the Cardinals’attempt to extend that streak came to a hault during Friday afternoon’s game against Pinkerton Academy.

Pinkerton broke open a cushion with a five-run third inning and that ultimately proved to be the difference towards a 9-7 victory for the Astros.

“We are bound to lose a game. We weren’t going to go 10-0 then 12-0 and then run it all the way through the tournament,” Bishop Guertin coach Scott Painer said. “These guys are going to learn from this.”

Bishop Guertin (12-5) began the season with a 2-4 record before it turned its fortunes around in a big way. BG is currently tied for fifth place in the Division I standings with Londonderry.

The Cardinals conclude their regular season with Wednesday’s home game against defending Division I champion Exeter (12-6) and Thursday’s road trip to Alvirne (5-11).

“We started off 2-4 and it’s been the same message the entire time,” Painter said. “We’re going to be OK and this is a good baseball team and we just have to continue to compete. These guys were in this game so it wasn’t like we were getting down. We were getting ourselves up.”

Pinkerton (13-4) came into the game in the opposite direction after losing three of their past four.

“BG is a good team and there were certainly a lot of opportunities given by both sides,” Pinkerton coach Steve Campo said. “We’ve been hammering away at our approach and today we saw it a little bit and I’m proud of the way we fought through.”

Pinkerton responded to Ben Geiger’s RBI single in the top of the first inning by scoring three runs in the bottom of the inning against Bishop Guertin starting pitcher Cooper Hand.

Bishop Guertin countered with RBI singles by Liam Ireland (3-for-4) in the second and Cam Flanders in the third off Pinkerton starter Josiah Del Signore to tie the game at 3-3.

Hand’s outing came to an end in the bottom of the third when he gave up a leadoff single to Jacoby Acevedo and issued walks to Kasen Plasse and Hayden Marshall to load the bases. Brody Eckerman followed with a two-run single, Landin Moore added an RBI single, and two runners scored on wild pitches to give Pinkerton an 8-3 lead.

Bishop Guertin shortstop Gavin Santos throws on the move to get a runner at first base during the fourth inning of Friday’s 9-7 loss to Pinkerton.

“We’ve been emphasizing that we’ve got to play for one run and we just have to try to get the next guy up and keep the train rolling,” Pinkerton coach Steve Campo said. “They did a good job with that approach today against a very good team.”

Bishop Guertin fought back in the top of the fourth with RBIs from Gavin Santos in Geiger. Ireland added an RBI double in the fifth to trim the deficit to 8-6.

Pinkerton was up 9-6 when Flanders led off the top of seventh with a single off reliever Brayden Kroll. Flanders eventually scored on a wild pitch, but Kroll struck out the side to end the game.

“I thought we competed alright,” Painter said. “We struck out 10 times and they didn’t strike out any. When you make outs like that and not put the ball in play it’s tough to make things happen.”