BETHEL – Jay High School refused to go down with out a fight, and the competitiveness of the defending Class C state champions paid dividends Monday. Senior Josh Armandi pitched four innings of relief and the Tigers scored three runs in the top of the 11th inning to complete a 6-3 come-from-behind win against Telstar in an MVC game. The contest lasted exactly three hours and the setting sun was a challenge for batters, catchers and home plate umpire Jeff Benson.

Jay (2-2) entered the game on a mission after losing two of its three first games. But this time, the players simply weren’t buying into the theory of a rough start.

The marathon affair finally took on a new look when Jay loaded the bases with no outs in the 11th. It started harmlessly as No. 9 batter Shawn Jacques (3-for-5, two runs) reached safely on a slow ground ball that rolled beyond losing pitcher Casey Fleet (0-1). Ryan DiPompo walked and Jake Turner hit a fly ball that was dropped in right field. Armandi hit a slow roller to a drawn-in infield and Telstar short stop Kinsey Durgin threw home to force Jacques. But a throw by Rebel catcher Josh Appleby ended up in right field and two Tigers raced home. Armandi scored on an A.J. Nelson ground out.

“I just wish that we could have hit more,” Jay coach Chris Bessey said. “But I bet Telstar wished they could have had more hits also. There was opportunities to score on both sides, but it was for us to have received a couple good innings from Brandon Purrington and then we could bring in Josh Armandi.”

The climax was a direct opposite from the pitching duel that transpired between Telstar sophomore Terry Collins and Jay senior Zach Charles. Collins struck out five and allowed two hits in six innings as Jay batters hit curve balls in the ground. Charles was equally effective, striking out four and allowing two singles in six innings.

Jay had rallied to tie the score 2-2 in the seventh as Jacques (two doubles), with two outs, scored on an Armandi RBI double.

“They kept digging,” Bessey said. “But that’s the characteristic of this team. They know there’s seven innings and 21 outs, so they don’t give up. There were some big plays made defensively.”

Telstar (1-1) took a 2-1 lead behind single runs scored in the third and fourth innings. Chris Zinchuk led off the third with a base on balls, reached third and scored on an Appleby groundout. In the fourth, Durgin reached safely when Armandi dropped a pop up and scored on a single by Augie Reiss.

Both teams scored one unearned run in the eighth.

Jay received a yeoman effort by catcher Austin Ouellette who blocked several balls in the dirt. Armandi also redeemed himself by throwing pinch runner Jake Largess out at home plate.

“The team made the defensive plays when we needed to,” Armandi said. “Austin Ouellette was great behind the plate. It was important he was able to stop so many balls because I had to break some balls off in the dirt against the Telstar batters. It was nice knowing that I could do that. It took some pressure off and pitchers need to be able to rely on (efforts) like that to win in the MVC.”