Todd Rose | Daily Press Bark River-Harris’ Nick Javurek pitches during an MHSAA Division 4 District 98 Title game against the Norway Knights Friday in Afternoon.

BARK RIVER — Despite having to come from behind to take the lead twice in the early innings of the game, the host Bark River-Harris baseball team cruised to a 12-4 win over rival North Central in an MHSAA Division 4 District semifinal game at the Bark River Sports Complex on Friday afternoon.

The Jets jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first via Andrew Webber driving in lead-off batter Adrian Mercier who walked to lead off the game. The Broncos countered in the bottom half of the opening inning, plating two runs, with one run coming from the bat of Aiden Johnson, who cracked a double.

North Central re-took the lead at 3-2 in their half of the second inning, with catcher Wyatt Riley smacking a single to drive in Fabian Chartier and Carter Eichmeier.

The Broncos countered with three runs in the bottom of the second and seven in the bottom of the third, to essentially put the game away early. The young Jets weren’t able to muster much of any offense beyond the fourth inning.

NC struggled to score many runs against the rival Broncos in their regular-season meetings.

“They were ready to play today. They jumped out early on us,” said Broncos head coach Al Botwright. “We struggled to throw strikes early on, but once we found the strike zone, we started to minimize the advantage.”

Travis Mack started the game on the mound for BR-H, Max Hall, who came in in relief midway through the baseball game, struck out a team-high six batters.

“Max Hall came in and did a great job on the mound. He pitched us out of trouble a couple different times,” Botwright said. “He came in and finished the game for us, and that’s exactly what we needed.”

With the loss, the Jets season came to an end, with a record of 2-19. Head coach Jason Mercier stated that despite the teams’ record, with many young players returning for next season and beyond, things have the potential to improve in the coming years.

Mercier noted that the main struggle all year for the Jets was errors, “right to the end of the season, unfortunately, today was no different,” Mercier added. “But the kids fought hard today and played much better than we did against them (BR-H) in the season.

“That’s an all-senior group other than one player, that they (BR-H) start. And we have 11 sophomores who never played high school baseball because the season was canceled last year. We have plenty to build around.”

North Central had four seniors play their last high school game of any kind for the Jets on the day. Eichmeier, Chartier, Riley and starting pitcher Ian Gorzinski.

Gorzinski fanned a game-high seven batters in the contest.