For the third straight day, Chillicothe followed its ill-advised scoring pattern — fall behind early, wait until the final innings and unleash the pent-up offense in a few short bursts.

The Hornets claimed their first Pony Express Tournament title in 13 tries Wednesday with its ulcer-inducing brand of baseball during a 9-5 victory against Benton at Hyde Park No. 6. Trailing 4-1 with five outs left, Chillicothe stung three Benton pitchers for eight runs on seven hits in the come-from-behind effort.

“We’ve been a little cold in the first few innings, yeah,” Chillicothe catcher Austin Harlow said. “Hopefully, we can start scoring a little bit earlier.”

In a balanced hitting effort, Harlow played the hero with a pair of timely hits. His fifth-inning home run to left field tied the score at 4 and a two-RBI single in the seventh gave his team some much-needed breathing room entering the bottom of the inning.

He finished 2-for-4 with four RBIs and snapped an 0-for-6 slump against Benton starter Austin Garton, who left the game after Harlow’s homer.

“As soon as it was off my bat, I knew it was gone,” he said of his long ball. “It’s just a feeling you get right on your hands. It feels good.”

Harlow also chased all-state pitcher Jake Kretzer with one out remaining — after just one full inning of work — thanks to his opposite-field flare that scored Chillicothe’s final two runs.

“Those extra two were really big,” Chillicothe coach Dave Mapel said. “Then you can come up and relax, but you’ve still got to be focused.”

Reliever Alex Singleton faced the the minimum in the seventh and struck out Garton looking to end the game and prevent the Cardinals from earning their third consecutive title in the event.

Singleton’s strong effort — limiting the Cardinals to two hits and one run in 3 2/3 innings — gave the Hornets a chance to climb back into the contest.

“They’re a very good team, and they can score in spurts,” Benton coach Mike Musser said. “They just got hot later than we did.”

Benton third baseman Johnny Coy delivered what looked like the game-winning hit in the bottom of the sixth when his double scored Josh Zuptich from third. Coy finished the tourney 8-for-10 with four extra base hits — all doubles — and seven RBIs.

But Singleton kicked off the five-run seventh with a one-out double, and Tyson Blattner soon scored the go-ahead run to give the Hornets their first lead of the game. The last four Chillicothe runs came with two outs.

“These guys are patient. They don’t get rattled,” Mapel said. “If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.”

In its previous two tournament games, Chillicothe (10-3) fell behind by five runs to Bishop LeBlond and Central before mounting late comebacks. Benton (10-2) only managed a 4-0 lead before falling into an offensive funk.

With the win, Chillicothe avenged an early-season loss to Benton in a game when the Hornets committed nine errors.

“It’s finally good to beat Benton,” Harlow said. “We’ve been looking forward to this for about three or four weeks — getting them back in the championship.

“We know we can play with the big dogs now.”

Central 7, Lafayette 2

Jonathan Rice’s first trip to the hill highlighted the Indians’ victory in the third-place game of the Pony Express Tournament.

A shoulder injury threatened to derail Rice’s season before it began, but he struck out five and walked just one in five innings of work against the Fighting Irish to pick up his first win.

“That’s a good feeling to have him back and him throwing hard,” Central coach Stan Weston said. “We didn’t know whether we were going have him back this year, and we definitely think that’s going to help us.”

Central’s bats also heated up, as four players recorded a multi-hit game for the Indians (6-5). Third baseman Chaz Williams also belted his first home run of the season — a two-run shot in the first that came in the middle of a six-run inning.

“We started out the year real hot, but it’s kind of slowed down a little the last couple of weeks until today,” Weston said. “Hopefully, we’ll keep this up.”

Lafayette (3-8) received another complete offensive day from Josh Carrithers, who went 3-for-4 and had both of his team’s RBIs, but the Irish couldn’t muster the same offensive outburst they showed Tuesday when they plated nine runs against Benton.

Sports reporter Andy Meyer can be reached at andymeyer@npgco.com