Photo by Samantha Davis. Milroy Irish's Tyler Maeyaert throws a pitch against Worthington Wednesday night at the Irish Yard. Maeyaert threw a single-game record 19 strikeouts in Milroy's 4-2 win.

MILROY — Tyler Maeyaert threw a Milroy Irish single-game record 19 strikeouts, holding Worthington scoreless for six straight innings. While Worthington surged ahead late, Milroy embarked on a late three-run eighth inning for a 4-2 win Wednesday night at the Irish Yard. The victory marked three straight for Milroy.

“First and foremost, tip of the cap to Tyler Maeyaert, he threw an amazing game,” Milroy manager Anthony Dolan said. “They [Worthington] put the bat on the ball and scored a couple runs and took the lead on us, but it’s hard to fight these boys to come back the way we did and score three in the bottom of the eighth, that’s huge. That resolve is absolutely huge.”

Maeyaert tossed three strikeouts in five different innings to challenge the Cubs offensively for most of the game, including a nine-pitch perfect third inning, and recorded at least one every inning he was on the mound.

Maeyaert spent a majority of the night on the mound, pitching 7 2/3 innings before Craig Lasley relieved him in the eighth inning with two outs.

Lasley finished with one strikeout, and Trevor Smith pitched the ninth inning for two strikeouts to earn the save.

Overall, Milroy finished with nine hits and no errors to Worthington’s four hits and three errors.

“We’re going to be pitching and defense a lot [this season],” Dolan said. “If we can pitch and play defense, we’re going to be in a lot of games. Just got to wake these bats up a little earlier in the game, and score a few more runs rather than in the eighth.”

The Irish scored its first run in the first inning and held onto the slight edge until Worthington tied the game up 1-1 in the seventh inning, and took the lead with another run in the top of the eighth. Yet, Milroy continued to prevail late in the game and took back a 4-2 advantage off a Levi Maeyaert RBI single in the bottom of the eighth.

After Tyler Maeyaert set the tone in the top of the inning defensively with three straight strikeouts, he also scored Milroy’s run in the bottom of the frame after an infield single, reaching first off a Worthington defensive error.

Maeyaert proceeded to steal second, also reaching third on the same play off an overthrow error, and went home with an Andrew Wallen sacrifice fly to left field.

The Cubs tied the game up in the seventh inning with bases loaded and no outs off an RBI single.

But, Maeyaert again showed up big with Worthington keeping bases occupied and threw another three consecutive strikeouts to prevent the Cubs from deepening their lead.

Milroy had an opportunity to take the lead back quickly in the bottom of the frame in response with Dolan on second and Konnor Zick at first with one out, but Worthington completed a double play with a pair of force outs off an infield hit to end the inning.

The Cubs took the lead in the eighth after a pair of hit-by-pitches and a RBI double line drive to right center field.

Dolan made the pitching change to Lasley with two outs, who pitched a strikeout to half the Cubs.

Milroy’s three-run eighth inning rally to get back on top came off three hits and runs from Dominic Dolan, Derek Smith and Wallen.

Dolan reached base with a line-drive single, and moved to third off Smith’s single ground ball to right field.

Dolan went home off a Worthington throwing error attempting to tag-out Smith stealing second before Wallen was walked.

Both Wallen and Dolan scored on Levi’s two-run RBI line-drive single to give the Irish back the lead, ultimately becoming the final score as Smith closed the game out defensively in the ninth.

“That fight and that resolve, I mean getting down, it’s easy to roll over in that situation,” Anthony Dolan said. “But no, we came right back and put up a lead. Our young guys [were] stepping up for us. That’s huge.”

Milroy moves to 5-2 to start its season, with its two losses coming in mercy-rule by 10 runs to Windom and Rockets on May 11 and 23rd respectively.

The Irish will look to keep their momentum going next on a three-game road trip, first playing a doubleheader on Sunday at Lakefield at 2 p.m., and Jackson at 5 p.m. They will return back home to the Yard next Friday to host Lamberton at 7:30 p.m.

“It’s our hardest double header of the year … We’re going to rely on the arms,” Anthony Dolan said. “I don’t know what the temperature is, but usually it’s hotter than heck down there. We play a lot of our young guys, and lean in on our arms.”