Cathedral won Thursday’s matchup against archrival St. Aloysius, but the young Flashes won some respect.

The defending Class 1A state champions scored three runs in the eighth inning, then held on for a 9-8 win over the Flashes (11-7, 6-2).

“They really outplayed us on the field,” Cathedral coach Craig Beesley said. “They have a scrappy team and we just couldn’t put them away. We had a two-run lead in the seventh and they came back, then we have a three-run lead with two out in the eighth and still couldn’t get them out until we got a ground ball on the last guy.”

St. Al trailed 9-8 with two outs when Cathedral relief pitcher Jeremy Davis induced a ground-ball comebacker to the mound to get Johnathan Longmire and end the nail-biter.

“My team has no quit in them,” said St. Aloysius coach Wilkerson, who was ejected in the eighth inning after arguing calls with the home plate umpire. “They refuse to lose. We had that game, but a couple of bad calls went against us. It’s shame for that to happen in a game of this magnitude.”

Catherdal took a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the fourth following a solo home run by Charlie Lane. St. Al made its first comeback with three runs in its half of the fourth. Marsh Willis tripled in two runs and then tied it on Curtis Robertson’s single up the middle.

The Flashes (11-7, 6-2) then grabbed the lead at 4-3 when Blake Tidwell drove in Ryno Martin-Nez with a hit to left. This was the first of three, late-inning RBI hits from Tidwell, who finished 4-for-5 with three RBIs.

Catherdal (19-2) tied it at 4-4 in the sixth when Chris Rasco drove in Zack Calhoun with a single up the middle.

The Green Wave then appeared to take control with two more runs in the top of the seventh when Lane doubled in Preston Hicks and Drew Burns followed with a perfect suicide squeeze to score Davis.

But back came the Flashes. Jordan Muirhead got his first hit of the game with a single and Martin-Nez walked. That was all for Catherdal starter Patrick McDonough.

Davis entered the mound out of centerfield and struck out Andy Wiles. But Tidwell battled off a 1-2 pitch and sent it into right, scoring Muirhead to make it 6-5. Lambert Culley followed up hitting a grounder to short, which was enough to score Martin-Nez to tie the game at 6.

Longmire then walked to load the bases with just one out. Davis, though, struck out the next two Flashes to end the at-bat and send the game into extra innings.

“We had a chance there with a 2-1 count to put the ball in play with one out and didn’t,” Wilkerson said.

Wiles, who went the whole way for St. Al, got two out in the eighth but a single by Andrew Ellard, his fourth of the game, put the go-ahead run in scoring position.

Wiles then lost Hicks on a close 3-2 call to load the bases. Davis then hit a 1-2 pitch past Martin-Nez at short to score Jesse Morrison and Ellard for an 8-6 lead.

Wilkerson, who was seething on the close call to Hicks, was then ejected. A double by Lane made it 9-6.

Pierson Waring led off the St. Al eighth by getting a single and then scored after two wild pitches from Davis.

With two out in the bottom of the inning, Wiles walked and Tidwell followed with an RBI single to make it 9-8. Culley then added more suspense, moving Tidwell to third base with a base hit to right field.

Davis, who had five strikeouts in relief, got Longmire to hit back to the mound to end the game..

Cathedral finished with 14 hits, while St. Al had 12. Besides Ellard’s four-hit game, the Green Wave got two doubles and a home run from Lane.

Willis and Culley had two hits to assist Tidwell’s four-hit game for the Flashes.