Andrew Collins took the mound to start the game for St. Aloysius on Monday night and got two quick strikes on the leadoff batter. Three pitches later he plunked him in the back, Greenville-St. Joe went on to score four runs, and a pattern was started that repeated time and again for the Flashes.

When they were in the field, they couldn’t get the third out before major damage was done. When they were batting, they couldn’t drive in runs and take advantage of numerous opportunities. In the end, they found themselves on the wrong end of a 15-3 drubbing at the hands of the Fighting Irish.

St. Al (0-3) left the bases loaded three times in the five-inning game, starting with the first inning. Trailing 4-0, the Flashes loaded the bases with no outs and came away with nothing. They did it again in the third inning, when the deficit was still manageable.

By the fourth inning, when it happened a third time, the game had gotten out of hand. Greenville-St. Joe (3-0) scored seven runs in the top of the inning to take a 14-1 lead.

The big rally started with four straight hits — including an RBI double by Day Day Jackson and an RBI triple by Raines Rester — and ended with two runs off three errors.

St. Al scored a run in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI double by Matthew Mims, and got another back with an RBI single by Patrick Murphy in the fifth to make it 15-3, but it wasn’t enough to stave off the mercy rule.

“A lot of it has to do with our mental approach, and a lot of that stems from being young. I’ve got two seniors, two juniors and the rest are eighth-graders, freshmen and sophomores,” St. Al coach Derrik Boland said. “It’s going to take some time, and some growing pains. They come to practice and work hard every day. I can live with that. The biggest thing is we have to fix the mental approach.”

There were a few bright spots for the Flashes. Will Pierce went 2-for-2 with a double, triple and two runs scored, and Collins was 2-for-3 with a double. Four of the team’s six hits went for extra bases.

Boland was pleased also with the way his team generated scoring opportunities after falling behind 7-0 in the second inning, even if they didn’t finish them.

“Typically, you see a high school team that’s down 15-2 and they take it and stop battling,” Boland said. “The last two innings, stuff wasn’t going our way and we still fought. They were still trying to get back in the game, and I can live with that. It’s just going to take some growing up. We have a lot of talent.”