By JIM WALKER

Tribune Sports Editor

The Ironton Fighting Tigers like to make things interesting.

Ironton scored in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat the St. Joseph Flyers 2-1 last week.

On Thursday, Ironton fell behind 6-0 before rallying in the fifth and sixth innings for an 8-6 win.

“I don’t know if the layoff had anything to do with how we hit. The big thing is we finally got aggressive and started to swing the bat with some confidence,” said Ironton coach Tobey Schreck.

Tommy Waginger had two doubles and Nick Culbertson belted a three-run double to give Ironton the lead in the sixth.

“We played well for five of the seven innings. We had more mental errors than physical errors,” said Flyers’ coach Greg Bryant. “But you have to give Ironton credit. They were down six runs and they didn’t quit.”

Steve Easterling got the win with Jonathan Williams pitching a perfect seventh for the save.

Easterling went 3-4 at the plate while Brandon Leach, Waginger and Culbertson each went 2-4.

Tanner Riley was 2-4 with a home run and T.J. Young 2-4 with a double for the Flyers (8-3).

Young doubled, stole third and scored on a throwing error to put the Flyers up 1-0 in the second.

St. Joseph took a 5-0 lead in the third.

Joseph Payton walked, Payton Blair reached on an error, Justin Mahlmeister hit into a force play and Riley singled in a run.

Young doubled home two runs and Luke McGraw had an RBI single.

Riley belted a solo home run in the fifth to make it 6-0.

Waginger doubled to start the bottom of the fifth and scored when Williams reached on an error. Leach singled home Williams and came around to score on a hit by Culbertson.

Easterling singled and Waginger doubled as Ironton got within 6-4 to start the sixth inning.

Williams was walked and Leach singled home Waginger. Jordan McMaster walked to load the bases and Culbertson cracked a long double to clear the bases.

The Flyers host a doubleheader beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday. Ironton hosts Huntington at 5 p.m. Friday and visits Portsmouth for an 11 a.m. game on Saturday.

St. Joseph 014 010 0 = 6 7 4

Ironton 000 035 x = 8 11 2

Tanner Riley and Justin Mahlmeister. Steve Easterling, Jonathan Williams and Steve Easterling. W-Easterling (K-6, BB-3, H-7, R-6). Save-Williams (K-1, BB-0, H-0). L-Riley (K-7, BB-3). 2B-St. Joseph: T.J. Young; Ironton-Tommy Waginger 2, Nick Culbertson. HR-St. Joseph: Tanner Riley. Hitting-St. Joseph: Tanner Riley 2-4 2-rbi, T.J. Young 2-4 2-rbi, Cody Blackburn 1-3, Luke McGraw 1-3, Levi Hopkins 1-2; Ironton: Steve Easterling 3-4, Tommy Waginger 2-4, Jonathan Williams1-2, Brandon Leach 2-4, Nick Culbertson 2-4 4-rbi, Pierce Reeves 1-4.