Mired at 1-5 in the OHSL Liberty division, the Marcellus baseball team had little cause to believe that it could derail Westhill from the top of the standings.

Yet that is exactly what the Mustangs pulled off last Monday afternoon, constantly rallying and fending off the Warriors to earn its best win of the season in a 12-11 thriller.

The tone was set quickly, as Marcellus answered Westhill’s three-run start with two runs of its own in the bottom of the first inning.

When the Warriors brought the margin to 5-2, the Mustangs promptly got five runs in the bottom of the second to take a 7-5 lead.

In the fourth inning, Westhill went back in front, 8-7, only to have Marcellus again score and tie it, 8-8, as the back-and-forth affair continued.

Having given up a run in the top of the fifth inning, Marcellus made its decisive move, scoring three times in the bottom of the frame to ahead 11-9. An inning later, Tim Reyonolds tripled, then scored off Dan Zdanowski’s single to make it 12-9.

That insurance run proved to be quite important. Westhill made one more push in the top of the seventh, scoring twice and forcing Tyler Nowak from the mound. Ben Quick replaced him and coaxed the Warriors into the final out.

Already, Quick had torched Westhill at the plate, doubling twice and finishing with four RBIs to lead an attack which produced 13 hits, eight of them for extra bases.

Pat Keegan belted his team’s lone home run, while Zdanowski doubled twice. Brett Bernard and Chris Esterguard also doubled. Zdanowski and Keegan each drove in two runs, while Esterguard and Dan Heil earned single RBIs.

Marcellus could get another meaningful win on Friday, if it can knock off its most bitter rival, Skaneateles.