Staff photo / Brian Yauger. Maplewood senior Tyson Webster fires a pitch during Wednesday’s game against Badger in Vernon.

VERNON — A nine-run third inning helped push Maplewood to a big league win over Badger on Wednesday, 13-3, putting the Rockets in the driver’s seat of the NAC.

They split the season series with a win each. Badger won the first meeting, 13-7.

“We came focused,” Rockets coach Matthew Vadas said. “I don’t want to say we took them lightly, but we were not focused that first time around. We let one inning just snowball way out of control and we couldn’t recover. (Today), we went from pitch one to the last pitch focused and determined to get the win.”

After tacking on a run in each of the first two innings, Maplewood made its next time at bat count.

The connection of Josh and Zach Suba struck twice in the third, bookending the inning. Josh Suba knocked Zach Suba home with a double and then closed the top of the third with a sacrifice that scored Zach Suba again.

Maplewood’s lineup kept knocking each other home in between.

After that inning however, Badger’s bats woke up.

In the final four innings, the Braves outscored Maplewood, 3-2, but couldn’t eat into that deficit.

Nine errors was just too much to overcome for the young Badger group.

“I think what they need to do is just not let things get to them,” Braves coach Bill Hamilton said. “When we have an error, it seems like we have another error that builds upon it. They need to let it go and just move on to the next play, the next pitch, the next at-bat. Once they start doing that, they’ll put together a complete game.”

That’s not to say that Badger is scared of a deficit though. The Braves (6-3, 4-1) have three come-from-behind wins already this season. Hamilton knows his team can scrap.

“Three of our wins this year have actually come from behind, wins that we’ve been down, and we’ve won it in the last inning,” he said. “That’s kudos to this group right here, this group of boys. They don’t ever give up, and you saw it there as they kept battling.”

Badger gets back on the field next week, starting with a two-game set against Chalker. The first game of the series is scheduled for Monday at Badger.

The baseball season is around its halfway point, and the Rockets are aiming high this season. To make a postseason run, Vadas has two main things in mind. One of those issues came up on Wednesday.

“We need to stay healthy and use our pitching efficiently,” Vadas said. “One thing I didn’t like about today, we could have got out of here in five. We just couldn’t get it done. That’s two innings worth of pitches that we could have saved for later in the week. We’ve got a tough schedule ahead of us, and I would like to have had those two innings worth of pitches.”

The Rockets (7-4, 3-1) close the week out with a continued game against Mathews on Thursday, play host to Bristol on Friday, then end the week on Saturday against Champion.