MENDOTA – The Mendota and Stillman Valley baseball teams had a final score more like a football game as the Cardinals survived a huge Trojan rally to claim a 25-17 victory in Big Northern Conference action on May 26 at the MHS field.

Stillman Valley moved out to a 12-1 lead heading to the bottom of the third, with Mendota’s running coming on a solo homer by Ted Landgraf. Landgraf struck again in the bottom of the third when he walloped a two-run homer as part of a five-run inning and the Trojans closed the gap to 12-6.

Mendota plated four more runs in the fourth to make it 12-10, and then the Trojans were able to overcome the big double-digit deficit in the bottom of the fifth when Landgraf belted his third homer of the game, this one a three-run shot that lifted Mendota to a 15-12 lead.

It was Stillman Valley’s turn to rally when it had a five-run sixth to forge in front 17-15, but Mendota got a two-run single off the bat of Connor Engel in the bottom of the seventh to send the game to extra innings.

Both teams went scoreless in the eighth, but the Cardinals exploded for eight runs in the top of the ninth to put the game away.

Each team combined for 34 hits, with the Trojans getting 16. Landgraf was a perfect 5-for-5 with three home runs, two singles and seven runs batted in. Dominik Stamberger picked up three singles, while Andres Castaneda singled, tripled and had four RBI, Abel Guerra singled twice and drove in three, and Engel also singled twice and had two RBI. Krew Bond added a double for Mendota.

Bond was the starting pitcher for the Trojans (2-10), followed by Stamberger and Landon Kreiser, who took the loss. Stillman Valley sent four pitchers to the hill.