JACKSON TWP — Seneca Valley baseball coach Eric Semega believes pitching and defense are the strengths of his team.

Most of the time.

The Raiders walked seven batters and committed a couple of costly fielding mistakes in Tuesday’s 10-7 Section 1-6A loss to Pine-Richland at Raider Field.

“Our strengths let us down today,” Semega said.

Seneca Valley (4-2, 1-2) scored three times in the bottom off the fourth to take a 5-3 lead. Owen Yarussi singled and scored on a fielder’s choice, Creed Erdos singled and eventually trotted home on the P-R catcher’s throwing error, and No. 9 hitter Brock White delivered a run-scoring single to left.

But the Rams (3-4, 2-1) responded with three runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth for a 10-5 advantage, then held on for the win.

Joey Perry’s two-out, two-run single followed a pair of walks in the fifth. Cole Nelson, Anthony Mengine, Owen Henne and Tommy Zimmerman all doubled during the four-run sixth. Zimmerman’s double plated two runs with two outs and followed a walk as well.

Four of the seven Pine-Richland batters to reach on bases on balls scored. Jacob McGuiire walked three times and scored three times.

“Between the walks and errors, we probably handed them seven runs,” Semega said,. “We’re just not good enough to win games doing stuff like that. For us to win games this year, we have to play near-perfect baseball and make the other team earn everything it gets.

“We didn’t do that today.”

Luke Anderton’s two-run single pulled Seneca Valley closer in the sixth. The Raiders got the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the seventh, but Nick Merola popped out to shallow left field to end the game.

McGuire was the winning pitcher for the Rams, striking out five in 5.2 innings. He left the game after throwing 101 pitches.

“I thought Jacob did a great job of settling down after throwing 32 pitches in the first inning,” Pine-Richland coach Kurt Wolfe said. “He gutted one out for us. After he had to leave on pitch count, it was a matter of us just holding on.”

Pine-Richland has six freshmen on its roster. One of them — right-hander Tristan Farrar — pitched a scoreless seventh inning to get the save.

“We have a young team this year,” Wolfe said. “I keep telling our guys that if we scrap and play with grit, we can be successful. We played that way in our first two (section) games with Central Catholic and found a way to win one of those. Then we came out and played that way again today.”

Leadoff hitter Anthony Mengine had a double, two singles and scored three runs for the Rams. Perry had two single and two RBI.

Erdos had a double, single and two FBI for the Raiders. No other Seneca Valley player had more than one hit.

The teams play each other again Wednesday, this time at Pine-Richland.

“They won one at our place. Now we have to go try to win one at theirs,” Semega said.

Pine-Richland2001340 — 10101

Seneca Valley 2003020 — 782

W: Jacob McGuire 5.2IP (5K, 3BB). L: Owen Yarussi 4.2IP (5K, 6BB)

Pine-Richland (3-4): Anthony Mengine 2B 2-1B RBI 3-R, Tyler Armstrong 1B, Owen Henne 2B RBI 2-R, Jacob McGuire 2B 2-RBI 3-R, Tommy Zimmerman 2B 3-RBI, Joey Perry 2-1B 2-RBI, Joseph Connell RBI, Cole Nelson 2B

Seneca Valley (4-2): A.J. Capizzi 1B, Luke Anderton 1B 2-RBI, Nate Malak 1B, Owen Yarussi 1B, Creed Erdos 2B 1B 2-RBI Alex Mortier RBI, Nick Merola 1B, Brock White 1B RBI

Wednesday: Seneca Valley at Pine-Richland