By Nick Gerhardt, AlbertLeaTribune.com

NORWOOD YOUNG AMERICA &045; After putting up crooked numbers on opponents all season long the United South Central baseball team fell victim to the big inning Thursday against Norwood Young America in the Section 2AA playoffs.

The Raiders scored nine runs in the bottom of the third inning to cruise to a 13-2 win, ending the season for the Rebels.

&8220;The thing we&8217;ve kind of struggled with the last two games has been the one big inning,&8221; USC head coach Pat Frank said. &8220;Once you start doing that every game it gets tough.&8221;

The Rebels looked ready to showcase their potent offense from the outset.

USC&8217;s Kevin George homered in the first inning to give the Rebels a shot of confidence. The lead, however, would not last as Norwood Young America scored four in the bottom half the inning to take a 4-1 lead.

Chris Schultz came through in the second inning with an RBI single to draw the game to 4-2.

The Rebels had a great chance of climbing back in the game in the third inning when Jake Bonsack and A.J. Dreyer hit back-to-back singles with one out. Nick Fure followed with a single to left field that appeared would score Bonsack from second, but a perfect relay by the Raiders cut Bonsack down at the plate.

&8220;That was a huge play, that was a 4-2 ball game at the time,&8221; Frank said. &8220;The kid made a nice play.&8221;

The bats were there for USC but they couldn&8217;t put together a big inning of their own.

The Rebels out hit Norwood Young America 9-7, but USC pitchers struggled with control.

&8220;We needed to throw strikes,&8221; Frank said. &8220;Pitching and defense, it&8217;s been a little bit of a struggle for the past week.&8221;

In the nine run third the Raiders had three hits, walked four times and took advantage of three Rebel errors.

&8220;We couldn&8217;t really find the strike zone in the beginning and it kind of cost us in the end,&8221; Tom Voigt said. &8220;Once you get in the hole like that it&8217;s always hard to work your way back.&8221;

USC had been able to live and die by its offense all season, but it died Thursday.

&8220;It seemed to happen this week when people start spraying the ball around we get a little down on ourselves,&8221; Frank said. &8220;Sometimes it&8217;s tough for a high school kid when you look up at the scoreboard and see you&8217;re down eight, nine runs it&8217;s tough to get mentally prepared to come back.&8221;

Norwood Young America 13, USC 2

USC &045; 110 00x x &045; 2 9 3

Norwood Young America &045; 409 0xx x &045; 13 7 2

WP &045; Adam Esselman 5 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 9 H

LP &045; Chris Schultz 2 1/3 IP, 6 R, 5 ER, 7 H