The Iron Financial Orioles know all about coming from behind. When they fell behind Martins Creek 5-0 Sunday in game two of the Blue Mountain League Championship Series, it was just another day on the ball field for them. Unfortunately for the Orioles, there wouldn’t be a comeback in the offing this time and they fell to Martins Creek 7-4, evening the series at one game apiece.

The Orioles went down two games to none in the semifinals and came back to win three straight to take the series. They also picked up a fourth straight win in the championship series against the Creekers to give them a four-game win streak.

“We were bound to stumble somewhere along the line, and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” said manager Dave Stoudt of the streak his team would have needed to sweep the series against Martins Creek. “I didn’t expect to win six in a row.

“It’s going to happen. It’s baseball and it’s a three-game series now and we just have to see what happens next game.”

In the series opener, the Orioles got a complete game from Justin Jachowicz, but the pitching situation for game two was much more sketchy because of an injury that forced Ryuta Amaike onto the mound. Amaike, a product of Whitehall High School, had pitched earlier in the year for the Orioles, but was relied on much more for his bat than his arm.

The Creekers got right to work against Amaike in the top of the first when Emmaus’ Trey Hinkle followed Brandon Nardella’s leadoff double with a perfectly placed bunt that just eluded Amaike. Carson Freeman then followed with a sacrifice fly for the first run of the game. Three more hits and a hit batter led to three more runs and a 4-0 Martins Creek lead. Hinkle and Freeman delivered back-to-back doubles in the second to stretch it to 5-0.

“They came out 5-0 and our guys came back and made it 5-4 and we had pressure on them every inning and we were putting guys on base, but we just couldn’t punch it through,” said Stoudt.

The second inning seemed like the turnaround for the Orioles as they scored four times to make it a 5-4 game. Parkland grad Mike Tenaglia led off with a double and one out later Connor Lafferty walked. Randel Pacchioli singled to drive home Tenaglia and Konner Schneider doubled to make it 5-2. An RBI groundout by Whitehall’s Ryan Bonshak made it 5-3, and fellow Whitehall product Tyler Sweeney capped the scoring with an RBI double.

Amaike settled in and at one point retired seven straight. The Orioles had runners in scoring position in each of the next three innings, but Hinkle, who started the game for the Creekers, pitched out of a jam in the third and Brett Wagner, who relieved Hinkle in the fourth, worked out of a jam to end another threat.

“I knew my pitcher would settle in,” said Stoudt. “He didn’t know until late last night that he was starting because we had an incident where another guy got hurt and couldn’t pitch. Amaike’s been good for us and pitched early in the year, but hadn’t pitched in a while.

“He was very good for four innings, and then the last inning, I just think that he ran out of gas.”

Martins Creek took advantage of a tiring Amaike to score twice in the top of the seventh to stretch its lead and make things much tougher on the O’s.

The Creekers turned to Emmaus’ Caleb Fick to get the final three outs in the seventh inning and close out the game.

“We know that we’re playing the team with the best record in the league, and they’re going to be tough,” said Stoudt. “We made it through a very tough series with Hellertown and we know that we can beat anybody, but we certainly know it’s not going to be easy and today just proved how tough it can get.”