SANFORD — Once again the Mainers found themselves down early, and once again they rallied back. But unlike in game one of the NECBL North Division Semifinals series against the North Adams SteepleCats on Monday, Sanford couldn’t come all the way back. For the second night in a row the Mainers fell in extra innings, with Wednesday night’s 5-4 defeat in 11 innings knocking Sanford out of the playoffs.

For the third time in as many games the Mainers ran into a hot SteepleCats starting pitcher, with John Erhardt the latest to silence the Sanford bats Wednesday at Goodall Park. The right-hander retired 17 of the first 19 batters he faced ”“ allowing just a two-out walk in the first and a two-out single in the third ”“ before he ran into trouble in the sixth.

Nate Stepna reached on a two-out infield single and Shaine Hughes walked to knock Erhardt out of the game. Tanner Bird came on in relief and immediately gave up an RBI single to Dalton Thomas that put the Mainers on the board, but down 3-1.

Erhardt allowed just two hits in 5 2/3 innings, giving up just the single run while striking out four and walking two.

“He was throwing strikes,” Mainers manager Aaron Izaryk said of Erhardt.

Opposite Erhardt was Sanford starter Blake Morgan, who compiled a 1.97 ERA during the regular season but wasn’t nearly as stingy from the on-set of game three. Morgan allowed hits to the first three batters of the game, with Hunter Lee’s single driving in Logan Boyher before Morgan could retire a batter. Graham McIntire then came home from third on an errant throw from catcher Harrison Wenson, who was trying to catch Lee stealing second.

Joe DeLuca reached on an error before Morgan got Michael Osinski to ground out for the first out of the game. Jim Haley then drove Lee in with a sacrifice bunt. A liner back to Morgan off the bat of Zach Wall finally ended the inning.

“They had a couple barrels there. But I think he left a couple pitches up, and they hit them,” Izaryk said of Morgan.

The Sanford lefty slowly settled in after the rough first. He allowed consecutive singles to start the second, but got out of the jam. He gave up leadoff hits in each of the next two innings as well, but continued to keep a clean sheet. He ended his five-inning outing with his first 1-2-3 frame.

The SteepleCats responded to Sanford’s initial offensive output in the bottom of the sixth with a run of their own in the top of the seventh against Mainers reliever Cody Dube. Conrad Ziemendorf led off with an infield single, then advanced on both a ground out and a fly out. A single to shallow center by Lee then drove him in.

Dube shut it down after that, retiring the final four batters he faced, including three strikeouts.

The Mainers offense finally came alive in the seventh against North Adams reliever Parker Perez, who played the field in the first two games of the series. Sam Dexter led off with a double and two batters later Wenson singled to put runners at the corners. A double by Andruw Gazzola drove in Dexter, and three batters later Hughes was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to draw Sanford to within 4-3.

Dan Hetzel led off the eighth with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Dexter, who was robbed by McIntire on a diving catch.

Neither team could push the winning run across in the ninth, as Sanford’s Cam Hatch and North Adams’ Jared Habershaw both worked around leadoff batters reaching.

The Mainers put the leadoff batter on in the 10th as well, and immediately sacrifice bunted the lead runner to second both times. But Habershaw was able to shut down each scoring opportunity.

“He’s been so huge for us down the stretch,” North Adams manager Mike Armstrong said of Habershaw. “He had some struggles first half of the year, and the fact that he’s made adjustments with our pitching coach and learned how to battle and keep fighting … you saw it tonight. He finds ways to get it done.”

Hatch, the Mainers’ shutdown closer, worked around two walks and a two-out single in his first two innings. But the SteepleCats pulled through against him in his third frame of work in the top of the 11th. Michael Babb led off with a single before Habershaw ”“ who was forced to bat after Perez was moved into the field ”“ popped out on a bunt in foul territory. Boyher and McIntire then both reached on error’s by shortstop Brendan Skidmore, who couldn’t field Boyher’s potential double-play grounder cleanly and couldn’t secure a liner by McIntire after striding out to shallow left to get into position for a difficult play.

It was McIntire’s ball in play that drove home Babb, to no one’s surprise. McIntire drove in five runs during the three-game series.

The Mainers put the game-tying run in scoring position in the bottom of the 11th, as Nolan Rogers was hit by a pitch with one out and moved to second on a wild pitch. But Habershaw got both Stepna and Hughes to strike out swinging ”“ with the latter on a ball in the dirt that catcher Boyher tossed to DeLuca at first for the series-ending putout.

“I thought we played well. You got to credit (North Adams). They played their tails off over there, and their starting pitching did their job,” said Izaryk. “Three one-run games, two in extra innings is tough to swallow, but in summer ball when you get down three in the first inning it’s easy to shut it off. Our guys didn’t, and that’s what we’re proud of, and that’s what we’re proud of every year, is the guys who stay to the end and make it happen. This was a special group for me.”

— Sports Staff Writer Wil Kramlich can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or sports@journaltribune.com. Follow him on Twitter @WilTalkSports.