Even though his team won their Big Eight Conference game with visiting Princeton 10-7 Tuesday night, Mount Vernon baseball coach Paul Quinzer wasn’t all that happy.

"We’re always satisfied with the win," Quinzer said. "But if this had been a good Princeton team, it might have been a different story."

The Wildcats had trouble hitting the ball (collecting just six hits), but they took advantage of some aggressive base running and got just enough blows at the right time to pick up the win.

Ross David pitched a good game for five innings, but he ran out of gas in the sixth inning, as the Tigers got back into the game.

"Ross David had a nice ball game," Quinzer said. "He had what, 11 strikeouts? But he had a lot of walks and it caught up with him in the sixth inning."

David became fatigued and Quinzer was hoping to pull the junior hurler after five innings, but didn’t have a relief pitcher ready, so David got a little more work.

That nearly proved to be disastrous.

Eric Westlund opened the Tiger sixth inning with a walk, but was erased when David fielded Brandt George’s bunt and tossed it to shortstop Eric Stemple for a force out. Wes Medcalf and Quaid West followed with walks, loading the bases.

Dylan Swift greeted reliever Cody Vance with a two-run double, and then Shane Hayes and Kyle Schafer each singled, driving in two runs. Vance got out of the jam by fanning Josh Fourts and retiring Seth Flint on a fly ball to centerfield.

"Cody Vance hasn’t been able to pitch that much this season," Quinzer said. "But once he got settled in and started pitching, he was able to do well."

Vance walked George with one out in the top of the seventh inning, but he shut the door on the Tigers to pick up the save.

Once again, the Cats took advantage of Princeton’s miscues to take a big lead.

After falling behind 1-0 in the top of the first inning, Mount Vernon came back with a three-run outburst in the bottom of the frame.

Chris Stemple led things off with a single, while Eric Stemple was hit by a pitch and Andy Huber walked to load the bases. Cody Rupp doubled in two runs to give Mount Vernon the lead. Two outs later, Rupp crossed the plate when Jared Conville reached on an error.

The Wildcats made it 6-1 with here more runs in the bottom of the second inning. Cody Fink walked, and Chris Stemple singled to open the inning, Craig Cochran was safe when Fink beat the throw on his grounder to short, Rupp singled and Chris Barron reached on an error to plate the three runs.

Westlund belted a two-run homer in the top of the third to pull Princeton back to within three runs, but Mount Vernon came back in the bottom of the frame on a walk to Fink, a singled by Eric Stemple, an error, a hit batsman and wild pitch.

Two more manufactured runs in the bottom of the fourth stretched the lead to 10-3 and the Cats had a chance to end the game under the 10-run rule in the bottom of the fifth, Eric Stemple popped up with the bases loaded to end the frame.

"We sure didn’t terrorize the ball tonight," Quinzer said. "We didn’t crush the ball, we had six hits. Princeton’s a young ball club and we were able to move on the bases pretty freely. Their pitchers put a lot of our guys on base with walks. Still, it would have been nice to have scored 10 runs on 15 or 16 hits."

Mount Vernon also stranded 14 base runners in the game, causing the coach to conclude that the clutch hitting wasn’t there for his team.

Quinzer was concerned about the way his pitching staff has been throwing the ball, especially one night after an 8-2 lead got away against Mater Dei.

The pitchers aren’t throwing strikes, the coach explained and they are issuing too many walks, as well as hitting too many batters. Currently, Mount Vernon’s team earned run average is 4.07, the highest it’s been in years.

The Cats saw the lead get away from them in the first game of the week, as an 8-2 lead became an 8-8 tie after regulation. The game was suspended due to the weather and will be finished prior to the team’s May 21 game with Mater Dei at Bosse Field.

Mount Vernon hit the ball better Wednesday night, collecting 10 hits, but once again pitching and defense made things a bit more exciting than they should have been as the Wildcats edged visiting North 8-7.

Stemple started and got the Cats off and running in the bottom of the first with a solo home run. Mount Vernon added four in the bottom of the second after the Huskies tied the game to take a 5-1 lead, but North took advantage of 12 hits and four Mount Vernon errors to go up 7-6 after the top of the sixth inning.

Mount Vernon tied the game in the bottom of the sixth and push across the winning run in the bottom of the seventh