Staff photo / Neel Madhavan McDonald’s Brady Shobel pitches during Friday’s road loss to Lakeview in Cortland.

CORTLAND — A late flurry of runs helped Lakeview put away McDonald on Friday night.

Despite falling into an early hole, the Bulldogs rallied to score 16 runs over the final two innings to defeat the Blue Devils 18-8 in five innings in Cortland.

“We were just making it hard for ourselves on the mound,” Lakeview head coach Cam Carson said. “We were kind of giving them a little bit early in the game offensively, but I thought we were fine. Our guys did a good job of just staying level-headed and not getting too down after we fell behind early, and we did a good job rallying.”

McDonald jumped on Lakeview right from the opening pitch, putting up four runs in the top of the first inning.

Nick Larson batted in two runs during the inning off a double, while Jaxson Candel added an early RBI, as well.

“Our guys can hit, and we hit the ball,” McDonald head coach Andy Timko said. “We hit it good and the centerfielder made a heck of a catch on that one ball, otherwise that would have been two more runs there.”

Lakeview pulled a run back in the bottom of the frame with an RBI by Brandon Toot. But after the Blue Devils’ early surge, Carson went to his bullpen, as Matthew Leonard made way for Brandon Cash.

McDonald added two runs in the second inning and two more runs in the fourth inning.

Larson continued his big day with two more RBIs, while the Blue Devils got three runs off bases-loaded walks. He finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs to lead McDonald, while Quinn Schmidt went 2-for-3 with a double.

By the middle of the fourth, the Blue Devils were sitting on a comfortable 8-2 lead, but it all changed from there.

The Bulldogs’ bats woke up in the bottom of the fourth inning, as Lakeview batted around to plate seven runs and seize its first lead of the game.

“We just stayed with our approach, regardless of the situation,” Carson said. “Obviously when you fall behind early, you gotta go into attack mode a little bit more. I thought we did a good job of sticking with our game plan.”

During the inning, the Bulldogs had four straight hits, which included RBIs from Toot, Isaiah Lantz and a pair from Carter Doran. Lakeview got one run on a bases-loaded walk, and then Cash wrapped up the scoring for the inning with a two-run double.

Jacob Shaker went 3-for-4 at the plate to lead the Bulldogs, while Toot, Doran and Cash each finished with three RBIs.

“Two things are going well for us offensively — I think our guys are in attack mode, so when we’re getting balls in the zone, we’re hitting them hard and we’re buying into the middle-away approach,” Carson said. “We’re just keeping things simple. Everyone is just trying to do their job, and nobody’s trying to be a hero or do too much. I think that’s really worked well for us offensively, and why we’ve been able to score a lot of runs.”

Lakeview’s scoring onslaught continued into the bottom of the fifth inning, as it added nine more runs to its total to trigger the 10-run rule and end the game.

The Bulldogs batted around the order once again, but this time it was because the Blue Devils simply “ran out of pitching.” Lakeview’s bats batted in four runs during the inning, but the walks started to add up for McDonald, as the game ended with four straight bases-loaded walks.

“We played Garfield yesterday, and (Lakeview) has guys that they can just keep throwing out there. We don’t have that,” Timko said. “We have to hold off our No. 1 and our No. 2 for league play on Monday and Tuesday, as opposed to going out and getting this one.”

Despite only pitching one other inning this season, Brady Shobel got the start on the mound for the Blue Devils. He threw the first 3 1/3 innings, while striking out two with one walk and giving up four earned runs.

“He just started pitching, and he did a great job for three innings,” Timko said of Shobel.

Next up, Lakeview has a Northeast 8 Conference series with Hubbard on Monday and Tuesday, while McDonald continues Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference play against Waterloo on Monday and Tuesday.