The Griffin Christian Crusaders baseball team actually held a lead against a Macon team Friday evening, a first this season.

Unfortunately for the Crusaders, the lead didn’t last long and the Macon-based Mount de Sales Cavaliers kept coming, eventually beating GC 10-2 in GISA Region 2-AAA action at Nix Field.

With the win, the No. 3 state-ranked Cavaliers improve to 13-6 overall and 7-2 in region play. GC lost its eighth straight game to fall to 3-17, 1-8 with one region game left if both teams feel its necessary -- a makeup game with last-place Trinity Christian.

The Crusaders started out well. GC starting pitcher Micah Mitchell helped the Crusaders dent the scoreboard first thanks to an RBI single that scored catcher Wil Savage for a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. The Cavs took the lead right back from GC in the top of the third as they scored on a pickoff attempt error and an RBI double for the 2-1 score.

GC came right back in the bottom of the third. Matthew Hammond and Hunter Ott both singled and Savage came up and blasted a double deep in the right-center gap. Hammond scored easily to tie the game at 2-2, and Ott was right on Hammond’s heels. But the Cavs made a great relay throw home and in a very close play at the plate, Ott was called out and the score remained tied at two.

The Crusaders wouldn’t score again. They got close a few innings later, but Matthew Hammond was also thrown out at the plate.

The Cavaliers scored 7 runs combined in the fifth and sixth innings -- the big blow being a 2-run home run by Will Bentley -- to put the game away at 9-2. In the top of the seventh, MDS scored its final run to take the 10-2 lead, but the highlight for GC was a double play by Matthew Hammond to end that inning. Hammond, a senior, ran a long way from his shortstop position to catch a fly ball and with one motion, he threw home to reserve catcher A.J. Stewart to nail a Cavs baserunner who tried to tag up from third base.

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Griffin 8, Upson-Lee 7 (Friday): THOMASTON, Ga. -- The Griffin Bears won for the third time in four games, getting an 8-7 victory over the Upson-Lee Knights in Region 3-AAAA crossover baseball action Friday evening in their season finale.

Griffin ends the 2012 season with a 7-15 record.

The Bears, out of subregion A, belted 12 hits Friday with Rusty Duffee, Quantico Dodson, Cornelius Randolph and John Pope all collecting 2 hits each while Trey Mallett, Marquavious Brownlee and Montico Dodson each had one hit against Upson-Lee, out of subregion B.

Mallett pitched 5 2/3 innings for the Bears. Montico Dodson relieved Mallett, striking out the side to end the sixth and retiring the side on 3 fly balls in the bottom of the seventh to end the contest.