The St. Joseph Mustangs are used to putting together late-inning comebacks, but the Mustangs couldn’t scrape up enough offense on the way to a 6-4 loss Sunday night to the Clarinda A’s on the road.

Mustangs starting pitcher Blake Thomas had a rough night. Manager Matt Johnson felt like the defense could have helped Thomas but didn’t take advantage.

“We had opportunities to get him out of those innings, but we didn’t make the plays. It was more defensive tonight than it was Blake,” Johnson said.

The Mustangs developed a talent for getting into trouble after retiring the first two batters in an inning.

In the 2nd, Thomas surrendered his first run with two outs give Clarinda a 1-0 advantage.

After again retiring the first two batters in order, Thomas surrendered four consecutive hits that resulted in a 4-0 lead for the A’s. A bobbled ball or two on the infield, which weren’t ruled errors, certainly didn’t assist Thomas in his effort.

His continued to struggle in the 5th, however and wouldn’t survive the inning, and he wouldn’t retire the first two batters.

Before he could catch his breath in the 6th, he surrendered a leadoff single, a triple and the A’s owned a 6-0 lead. Manager Matt Johnson called for reliever Billy Gura, and that proved to be enough for the A’s to pull out the win.

Clarinda pitcher Chad McLin was nearly unhittable through most of six innings, striking out eight and not surrendering a hit until the third inning. Johnson credited poor plate discipline for the slow start.

“We were chasing pitches we don’t normally chase, and we were taking pitches we normally hammer.” Johnson said.

McLin wore down in the 6th and breathed life into the Mustang attack, allowing a Brett Seifert 3-run homer.

The Mustangs added a run in the 7th to make the score 6-4 but couldn’t chisel any more out of Clarinda’s insurmountable lead.

St. Joseph is off tomorrow, but the Mustangs remain on the road through Wednesday with stops at Mac n’ Seitz and Chillicothe. They return to Phil Welch Thursday to face the Sedalia Bombers at 7 p.m.

Sports correspondent Mike Loving can be reached

at npsports@npgco.com