Mesa Squanders 9th Inning Lead, Fall in 12 Innings to Madison, 4-3. Must-Win Game Tuesday Afternoon vs Northeast at 5 pm CT, 3 pm AZ Time

Enid, OK - The Mesa Thunderbirds are playing for their season's lives after they lost a 3-1 lead in the ninth and fell in 12 innings to Madison Tuesday morning, 4-3.

The Birds controlled a two run advantage heading into the bottom of the ninth but a walk and an error proved to be costly.  Madison scored two to send it to extra innings and finished off the victory with a homer on the first pitch of the 12th inning.

Jake Denham had a solid outing on the bump for Mesa, throwing 8.1 innings, allowing nine hits, three runs, two walks while striking out seven.

Mesa offensively collected eight hits with Ben Ferguson going 3-5 on his own with an RBI.  Josh Leslie and Paul Steffensen eached picked up an RBI as well.

The T-Birds will now move to an elimination game later this afternoon at 5 pm CT, 3 pm AZ time against the #7 seed Northeast Hawks out of Norfolk, Nebraska.  The winner will move on to play Madison Wednesday night at 7 pm CT, while the loser will be eliminated from competition.