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GARDINER — As Monmouth Academy’s defense continued to make big play after big play, Gardiner coach Ryan Gero had a message for his team: Just keep hitting it.

Through all the frustrations, the Tigers kept doing that — and late in the game, their perseverance paid dividends.

Gardiner came from behind to beat Monmouth 4-3 in eight innings Thursday in a crossover battle at Gardiner Area High School. The result propelled the Tigers into first place in Class B North and handed the Class C Mustangs their first loss of the season.

“We hit the ball hard all game, but just couldn’t find the holes,” Gero said. “We just keep saying, ‘Hit it down the line, hit it down the line,’ and luckily, we had a few bounce our way. … It’s about time, because we haven’t had nothing go our way this year.”

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Monmouth (6-1) took the lead right away, as Lily Palleschi tripled on the second pitch of the game and scored on an error. The Mustangs used two more hits and a combination of walks, steals and passed balls to stretch the lead to 3-0 in the second inning.

• Despite some hard-hit balls — Molly Takatsu and Livy Cleary had lineouts in the third inning, and the former also had two deep fly balls for outs — Gardiner (6-1) had just one hit and one run through five innings. In the sixth, though, a leadoff single from Lexi Ouellette and an infield single by Zoey Epperson keyed a two-run rally that tied the game.

• Takatsu, Gardiner’s pitcher, was dominant after Monmouth’s three early runs, allowing the Tigers to ride their late surge into extra innings. Then, after Epperson reached on another infield single that sent Zoey Sullivan-Brennan to third, the latter scored on an error.

“That’s a fair ball (on Epperson’s hit off the base), and it rolled away, and Zoey (Sullivan-Brennan) made a great decision to take the extra base going from second to third,” Gero said. “For once, we made a good baserunning decision; we’ve made some bad ones in the last few games.”

WHAT IT MEANS

• Gardiner has won games on back-to-back days after losing for the first time this season Friday at Belfast. The Tigers claimed a 9-3 road victory over Class C Winslow on Monday.

“My goal is really to not have a losing streak at all, so this win meant a lot,” Takatsu said. “After the first couple of innings, we realized we really had to check in. After that, everybody was just cooperating and doing the best they could, and it was awesome.”

• Monmouth failed to capitalize on a chance to gain ground in Class C South, which had three other still-unbeaten teams entering Tuesday. Still, Gero is bullish on the Mustangs.

“That’s going to be the team that I think is going to end up winning their division and their class this year,” Gero said. “Hats off to them; they’re a great ball club, and they’re phenomenal.”

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

“We knew Monmouth was going to be tough competition, so coming back from a loss (against Belfast), this is what we needed. … I think staying together and communicating (was key defensively) because they were finding the green in the gap.” — Zoey Sullivan-Brennan

STAT LEADERS

• Monmouth: Evelyn Pettengill (L, 7 2/3 IP, 2 ER, 2 K, 4 BB, 6 HA; 1B, SB), Lily Palleschi (3B, RBI), Lila Poussard (1B, 2 SB)

• Gardiner: Molly Takatsu (W, 8 IP, 3 ER, 7 K, 4 BB, 4 HA); Zoey Epperson (2 1B, 2 RBI), Lexi Ouellette (2 1B, SB), Zoey Sullivan-Brennan (1B, SB, RBI, winning run)

UP NEXT

• Monmouth: at Cony (3-2), 4 p.m. Wednesday

• Gardiner: vs. Morse (1-6), 4 p.m. Wednesday