STRUTHERS — The Astro Falcons responded with force after surrendering three runs to Knightline in the top of the first inning of Monday’s 18U Youngstown Class B game.

To erase the early deficit, the Falcons scored 10 in the bottom of the inning and continued to pour it on thereafter in an 18-7 win at Bob Cene Park in Struthers.

“Tonight was just about getting guys in, getting at-bats, and just kind of figuring ourselves out,” Astro coach Bill McCartney said. “Still early in the year, guys are showing up, and coming and going, and [this is] an opportunity to keep playing some baseball for the summer.”

Knightline put Falcons starting pitcher Will Petty on the back foot immediately to start Monday’s game, with Petty allowing two RBI hits and committing an error on a pickoff attempt to put the Falcons behind early.

Despite the three-run hole, McCartney said there was no motivational speech or rallying cry after the top of the first.

“Just play baseball,” McCartney said. “I mean, that’s the goal out here is just to come out here and play good baseball, and 0-0 every inning.”

To lead off the bottom of the first, Augie Maslo singled through the left side of the infield, a trend for a chunk of the game. Minutes later, Zain Jadallah drove in Maslo with a triple to deep center field, which prompted an errant throw to third base that allowed Jadallah to score as well.

After Michael Hershberger and Logan Bauer singles, Rowan Urbach brought home Hershberger to tie the game at 3. Astro was far from done, however.

Following a pitching change in which Frankie Rodriguez replaced starter Khalef Freeman on the mound, the Falcons continued the onslaught. Jackson Stocker’s sacrifice fly gave his team the lead before Ryan Reese drove in a run with a single to left field, Rodriguez walked in a run and Ben Peterson hit a ball to deep to left field for a triple and drove in the seventh and eighth runs of the inning.

Afterwards, Knightline made its second pitching change of the first inning, bringing in Tommy Gargasz for Rodriguez. Jadallah, the first batter Gargasz faced, singled to score runs nine and 10.

Knightline, unable to respond in the same fashion, were retired in order in the top of the second.

The Falcons, though, largely picked up where they left off; Urbach had an RBI double shortly before Brysan Zirwas drove in another runner. A second runner, who tried to score on the Zirwas single, was tagged out at home plate.

Undeterred, Astro scored three more runs in the rest of the inning, bringing their total to 15 by the time Knightline led off the third.

Knightline found some success in closing the gap, as Freeman sped his way home on a passed ball before a Mike Scavnicky groundout scored another runner. Knightline then held the Falcons scoreless in the bottom of the inning.

The momentum slowed in the fourth, however, when Knightline failed to score and allowed Astro to score three and expand the gap back to 13 runs.

Facing the prospect of being run-ruled, Knightline scored a pair of runs in the top of the fifth inning, but they could not escape the 10-run mercy rule for their fourth loss in the league.

After the loss, Knightline coach Tom Otto said Monday’s pitching woes were not a big surprise, considering the team played a tripleheader on Sunday as part of the Northeast Tournament Baseball (NETB) competition, which Knightline won.

“We didn’t have the pitching to compete today. We were in a situation in which we had the bullpen this game, and we kind of knew that going in,” Otto said. “Obviously, playing the tripleheader yesterday, that affected us in league play today, but I’m happy with where we’re at. I think we’re around .500 overall. Won the tournament this weekend. Unfortunately, we’re 1-4 in the league, and we got to figure out how we’re going to use our pitching staff going forward [so] that we can balance out the tournament schedule we’re playing and play within the league. Nothing to hang our head about.”

The next scheduled Class B game for Knightline (1-4) is Wednesday vs. A2Z Athletics.

As for the Astro Falcons (4-0), whose second game Monday was not completed by print deadline, they cruised through the first four games of their league schedule, winning by a combined score of 48-10. They play Eaglewear on Wednesday.