STRUTHERS — Cardinal Mooney held them off as long as they could, but the Rootstown Rovers proved to be too much in the end.

The Rovers piled on a combined nine runs in the fourth and fifth innings to take down Mooney 11-1 in the Division III Struthers District semifinals on Monday.

What was a manageable 2-1 deficit for the Cardinals going into the bottom of the fourth, quickly became a very deep hole to dig out of.

“It was competitive at first. We just made a little bit too many mistakes and a good team like Rootstown took advantage of it real quick,” Mooney coach Eddie Reese said. “They came ready to play. It seemed like we didn’t and everything just snowballed for us. When you play good teams like that, it’s going to get out of hand pretty quick.”

With a Rootstown runner on third in the bottom of the first, Mooney was able to escape the inning with zero runs on the board.

The Cardinals found themselves in the same position again an inning later, but this time, the bases were loaded. Mooney got out of the inning trailing 2-0.

They were able to cut that deficit in half in the top of the third however, scoring off a balk with two-outs. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, that would be the only time a Mooney runner would touch home plate.

When the bottom of the fourth rolled around, Rootstown piled on the runs. Blake Bower hit a two-RBI single, Tony Karp knocked in Jaggar Kokochak with a single and finally Joe Weaver was sent home on a bases-loaded walk.

Things didn’t get any easier in the fifth, with a runner walked in, a fielding error, a wild pitch and finally, Rovers senior Nathan Galambos was plonked with the bases loaded to score the decisive run to end the game.

Rootstown advances to the district finals on Wednesday, where they’ll face Ursuline, who took down Middlefield Cardinal 3-0 in its district semifinal matchup.

Mooney’s season ends at 11-12. The story of their season was one many area coaches have been saying. The Cardinals were trying to find a groove. Entering Monday’s game, they felt they were finally in a groove, but a bad bounce or too can change things.

“Trying to find the groove,” Reese said about the struggles of the year. “I think we felt really confident going into this week with our best baseball finally. Our goal throughout the year was to get better every week and did a pretty good job with that. Going into this week we had all the confidence in the world but that’s baseball.”

The Cardinals graduate a senior class of six, including Zach Hyrb, Jack Phillips, Jack Desmond and Jack Pepperney.