The Ballard High School baseball team hung with Bellarmine Prep as long as they could but couldn't put the game away in extra innings.

The Beavers fell 9-6, their first loss of the season, and are now 2-1 overall and 1-0 in the conference.

The two teams traded the lead all game until Ballard tied the score at four apiece in the bottom of the sixth.

The game was still tied at the end of the seven regulation innings and Bellarmine was up first in the extra period.

Bellarmine, from Tacoma, jumped all over Ballard's fourth pitcher of the afternoon, Dylan Murphy, and scored five, pushing the score to 9-4.

The Beavers didn't go away without a fight, thanks to Conor McClure's two-out, two-run homer to left field. Unforunately for Ballard, those were the only runs they could muster in the final inning.

After the game, coach John Lamm told the team, which had a number of costly errors, that little mistakes throughout the game can grow into something bigger, and that is what happened against Bellarmine.

"When it starts spinning like that, everyone take a breath and grasp what they need to do for the next play," he said.

Starting pitcher Nick Palewicz had four strikeouts in four innings and gave up a run. He was two for four with an RBI on the offensive side.

The team plays again at 3:45 p.m., March 20 at Kentlake High School.