Coming in to Tuesday night, Jesuit was the top-ranked team in the area after a 5-0 start to the season. In those five games, the Tigers had outscored their opponents 65-0.

Tuesday night, Robinson pushed them to their limit, but the Knights (4-1) caught a bad break as they fell to Jesuit (6-0) by a score of 4-3 in eight innings.

“I liked our fight. We didn’t play as sharp as we would like,” Robinson head coach Kevin McCray said. “When you give a team that’s that good opportunities, it’s going to eventually bite you.”

The Knights got out to an early 1-0 lead in the first inning when Shawn McGory (’16) drove in Killian McCray (’17) with a ground ball to short. The run was the first given up by Jesuit this season.

Michael Tini (’16) got the start on the mound for the Knights, working through the first four innings without giving up a run. The Tigers got to him in the fifth, scoring three runs to take the lead. Once his night was done, he had given up just the three runs on eight hits and three walks in four and two-thirds innings pitched.

After falling behind in the fifth, Robinson responded immediately, loading the bases with two outs before Aaron Scott (’17) delivered a game-tying two-run single, chasing Jesuit starter Clayton Kwiatkowski (’16) from the game. Kwiatkowski gave up three runs on three hits and three walks in four and two-thirds innings. He finished the night with nine strikeouts.

Despite getting the leadoff man on in the seventh, the Knights couldn’t break the tie and the game went to extra innings. After two quick outs in the first extra frame, Jesuit’s Adam Weekley (’16) tripled to right field and was awarded home after the relay throw bounced off of him and trickled out of play. The bad break for the Knights looked worse after the next batter was easily retired with a groundout to short.

Robinson went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the eighth to end the game.

The Knights will see the Tigers again on April 5, when they will look to end a long losing streak against their district rivals.

“Our pitching staff, they’d be the first to admit, they weren’t sharp tonight and it still went eight innings,” McCray said. “So, it bodes well for us.”

Robinson will head to Blake (0-5) on Thursday before returning home to host Alonso (3-3) on Saturday at 1 p.m.