The Pettus Eagle varsity baseball team played two tough district foes last week and played them well, but not quite well enough.

The Kenedy Lions edged the Eagles, 7-5, on Tuesday night in Pettus and then the visiting Port Aransas Marlins dealt the Eagles a 4-1 loss on Saturday afternoon.

In Tuesday’s game with the Lions, the Eagles fought back from a 4-0 early deficit. The visitors scored three runs in the first and another single run in the second. Pettus got back on track in the home half of the second and pushed across four runs to tie it at 4-4.

Both teams went scoreless in the third, but the Lions roared for single runs in each of the next three innings beginning in the fourth. The Eagles got one in the fifth, but could not catch the Lions.

Hunter Tomlin pitched four innings, striking out six Lions, and took the loss. Ryan Beck relieved him and finished the game for the Eagles, getting another six Lions on strikes.

Tomlin was 1-2 at the plate and reached twice on walks. Beck went 2-4 with a triple and three RBI’s. Coby Gonzales drew one walk and scored, and catcher Taylor Yeoman walked twice and scored once. Anthony Mendoza had two hits in four trips and scored one run for the Eagles. James Constante had one hit in four trips and a run. Lane Kruger was 1-3 with a run.

“We left nine men on base for the game. We have to do a better job of moving and scoring base runners when the opportunity arises,” said head coach Anthony Ramirez.

“I was happy with our effort and the way we battled back after being down 4-0 in the second inning.”

In the game with Port Aransas, the Eagles out-did the Marlins in all aspects except on the scoreboard. Beck pitched a two-hitter and struck out 10 Marlins on the afternoon. He allowed just one earned run but the Pettus errors really hurt.

“Against a team like Port Aransas, you can’t make mistakes. We made three errors for the game that allowed batters to reach base. All three of those runners that reached on errors came in to score,” Ramirez said.

The Marlins led 2-0 after two innings with single runs in both frames. Port A added one more in the top of the fourth for a 3-0 lead. The Eagles got their lone run in the bottom of the fourth to make it 3-1 through four full innings. The Marlins got an insurance run in the sixth.

The Eagles out-hit the visitors 7-2 but left too many runners stranded on base, according to coach Ramirez.

“We left seven runners on base for the game. I like the way we competed, our team played tough and never hung their heads, but we have to eliminate the errors to beat a team that’s playing as well as Port A is,” Ramirez said.

Beck was 2-3 in the game with a double and scored the lone Eagle run. Tomlin went 1-4. Dylan Dunn went 1-3 with a run knocked in. Constante had one hit in three trips to the plate as did Kruger. Clay Brown was 1-2 with one walk.

The losses put the Eagles at 2-6 for the district and 8-14 overall.

Tuesday night the Eagles traveled to Woodsboro to meet the other Eagles.

On Thursday night, the Eagles will entertain the Falls City Beavers in the season finale.