Staff photo / Preston Byers Creekside’s Fred Zehetner awaits a pitch during Tuesday’s 18U Class B game vs. the Avalanche at Bob Cene Park in Struthers.

STRUTHERS — It took some time for Creekside to get its bats going during Tuesday’s 18U Class B game against the Avalanche, but once it did, it quickly racked up the runs.

Creekside, which lost the first meeting of the season with the Avalanche on June 19, avenged that loss with a 6-2 victory at Bob Cene Park before finishing up a lopsided win vs. Ballistic to go 2-0 on the day.

“We didn’t have anything going on this weekend, so nobody swung a bat all weekend. But once we finally saw the pitcher one time through, everybody kind of started clicking and started doing what we’re good at doing,” Creekside coach Jordan Cataldi said.

Both teams’ pitchers — the Avalanche’s Coen Fertig and Creekside’s Parker Montgomery — enjoyed early success, with the pair each limiting opposing batters to three hits through the first three innings.

However, in the bottom of the fourth, Creekside found a groove while making its second time through the order.

Dane Barber led off the frame with a single up the middle before making his way to second base on a passed ball. Shortly afterward, William Shaffer tripled to right field, scoring Barber for the first run of the game. Shaffer then scored on a Brodie Dewberry groundout, and Montgomery gave Creekside a 3-0 lead by driving in Dan Leonard, who was hit by a pitch.

After an Avalanche pitching change and Montgomery retiring the Avs’ side in order to open the fifth inning, Creekside continued to add to its lead, with a two-out single by Dewberry putting his team ahead 4-0. Two more runs crossed home plate soon thereafter when an overthrow to first base on a bases-loaded ground ball kept the inning going.

“It’s kind of been what happens to us all year,” Avalanche coach Shawn Boyer said. “We get the two outs, and then the routine ball eats us up. I think we just talked about it after. [We need to] attack the baseball. Don’t wait on it; charge it, work through it and it’ll make the routine play more routine versus waiting and then having too much time to think. So I think that’s where it happened. And then once that error happened, then we had another error. It just compounded a hit, they scored runs after that.”

Creekside appeared to be cruising to a shutout win until the seventh of the inning, when Shaffer relieved Montgomery and the Avalanche’s Zach Marantis singled to lead off the inning and spark the lineup. A hit-by-pitch followed, as did a Connor Zorn single to right-center field, which, along with an off-the-mark throw to second base, enabled a pair of runners to score.

The Avalanche’s comeback ended there, though, as Shaffer soon recovered and struck out back-to-back batters and forced a fly out to secure the 6-2 win.

“Got a little sloppy at the end,” Cataldi said. “The game was good. I would like to get it over with sooner, though. But they played well.”

After its win vs. the Avalanche, Creekside concluded a game vs. Ballistic that Creekside was leading 9-1 before it was suspended on June 10. The pair of wins put Creekside at 8-7 on the season.

As for the Avalanche, it slipped to 8-8. The Avs will play Athletix today at 8 p.m. before finishing a game they lead 11-0 on Saturday.

“We just got to grind it out,” Boyer said. “I mean, anyone’s beatable here. We’ve shown that. We’ve beat the teams at the top. We beat the teams in the middle. And we just have to play a complete game, and try to work our way into the playoffs. We’re sitting right on the sixth spot, I think, or close to it. … So we gotta come out and try to take good approaches in the box and hit the ball.”