At some point, the St. Aloysius vs. Stringer playoff series stopped being baseball and became a last man standing match.

The teams traded body blows and haymakers, pulled themselves off the mat and fell down again, and wrote the latest chapter in a decade-old rivalry.

When it was all over, though, Stringer got in the last, best shot by scoring two runs in the top of the seventh inning of Thursday’s Game 2. St. Al clutched at the ropes and nearly made it to its feet to keep it going, but slumped back to the ground at the count of nine, the victim of an 11-10 loss and a two-game sweep in the second-round Class 1A series.

“We just didn’t take advantage of a lot of people on base, didn’t get hits at the right time, and it just didn’t work out this year,” said St. Al senior Connor Smith, who scored two runs but also took the loss as a relief pitcher. “It definitely puts a bitter taste in your mouth knowing that we were up five runs (in Game 1) and they stole it from us. And then today was just a really good baseball game and once again they beat us.”

The teams — which were playing each other in the postseason for the third straight year and sixth time in 10 years — combined to score 41 runs in two games. Stringer overcame a five-run deficit to win Game 1 and a six-run hole in Game 2.

Each team made its share of blunders, but also enough plays to turn both games into a pair of wild back-and-forth classics that could have gone either way.

“We bring the best out of each other,” Stringer coach Wade Weathers said. “It’s gone three games every year until this year, and it about went three games again. The contests are always tight. The last couple of years have been pitching dominated, and this year was hitting dominated. With this series, you get the best of every world that baseball has. We love playing them.”

St. Al (11-11) jumped in front 8-2 in the early stages of Game 2. Jacob Breeden tripled in two runs to key a six-run rally for the Flashes in the second inning. Will Pierce had two RBI singles in the first two innings, and Smith reached base twice and scored both times.

Just like in Game 1, however, St. Al couldn’t protect the lead. Its pitchers struggled to throw strikes, and Stringer plated four runs in the third inning and three in the fourth to take a 9-8 lead. Daylan Dyess had a two-run double as the Red Devils (21-7) batted around in the third inning.

The four pitchers St. Al used only walked four batters — all by starter Josh Brown in the first two-plus innings — but their inability to find the strike zone hurt them in other ways. By falling behind in the count, they had to throw more fastballs over the plate, and Stringer’s hitters hammered them. The Red Devils had nine hits total in the third and fourth innings.

“We put them in hitter’s counts all night long. When you’re 3-0, 3-1, 2-0 all night long, it makes it so their guys can sit there and know what they’re getting. We struggled on the mound the entire series,” St. Al coach Steve Hancock said.

St. Al reliever Casey Griffith finally stopped the bleeding by throwing three shutout innings, and St. Al bounced back to regain the lead. Two walks and a base hit by Pierce loaded the bases in the fourth inning for George Tzotzolas, who lined a single to center field to plate two runs and put the Flashes back in front, 10-9.

Both teams then settled in until the seventh, when Will Hill singled up the middle and Brett Welborn was intentionally walked to put runners at first and second with one out. Seth Walters followed with a base hit to right field to bring in the tying run, and a sacrifice fly by Bailey Sullivan scored Welborn with the go-ahead run as Stringer went ahead once again, 11-10.

“I think I missed a couple of pitches, didn’t get ahead early in the count, and then they took advantage of it. I had to come to them, and they got the hit at the right time,” said Smith, who moved from center field to the pitcher’s mound after Griffith gave up the leadoff single to Hill.

St. Al had one last chance in the bottom of the seventh. Brown reached base on an error and got to third on a pair of groundouts. Breeden, the Flashes’ hottest hitter, came to the plate. He was 3-for-4 on the day and hit a sharp comebacker up the middle.

The ball, however, hopped right into the glove of the Stringer pitcher Sullivan. He lightly tossed it to first base to end the game, the series, and St. Al’s season.

“There’s nobody I would have rather had up at the plate at the end than (Breeden),” Hancock said. “It was one of the few times that he didn’t get it done. And to be honest with you, a little bit here or there and it would’ve been a single that ties the game. It wasn’t a poorly hit ball.”

The final out was a sample of the way the series went for St. Al. Either game could have gone either way. The Flashes could have swept the series or, as it happened, been swept. Hancock said it wasn’t an easy loss to take, but he did find a lot to be happy about with his team’s effort and performance.

“We did just about everything we could possibly do offensively,” Hancock said. “We made a couple of mistakes, but for every mistake we made, we did something real positive right behind it. We answered them every time except the last inning.”