By Don Ketchum

Who likes to do things the easy way? All of us do. Heck, there’s even a push-button that says, “Easy,’’ in a well-known advertisement for one of the office-supply stores.

But sometimes the easy way isn’t the most rewarding way.

Take Glendale Apollo’s baseball team, for instance.

The Hawks spotted visiting Heritage (Colo.) a 6-1 lead on Tuesday night (March 27) in the Coach Bob Invitational, then scored five runs in the bottom of the seventh to send the game into extra innings and won it in the eighth 7-6 on a passed ball.

It was the second game of the day for Apollo, which defeated Dakota Ridge (Colo.) 2-1 earlier in the day. Apollo plays another home game in the tournament on Wednesday (March 28) at 3 p.m. against Lebanon (Ore.).

“We had been facing left-handers all day and we needed to find a right-hander,’’ said Apollo coach Jerod Aker.

The Hawks did in the late stages of the game against Heritage, going against right-hander Aaron Cook, the Eagles’ regular shortstop.

Cook is a hard thrower, but control can be an issue.

He walked Apollo pitcher Marcos Coralles with one out in the eighth and surrendered a bad-hop single by Hector Ortiz past the shortstop. Cook struck out Max Schuber for the second out, but on a pitch to Tony Garcia, the Heritage catcher couldn’t control a pitch that went off the top of his glove, giving Coralles just enough time to score the game-winner.

Heritage scored a run in the second on a home run by Sam Bretz, got another run in the fourth, three in the fifth and one in the sixth for a 6-1 lead.

But Apollo scored five runs on six hits in the bottom of the seventh.

“Our pitchers gave us a chance, gave our offense a chance to get going. They threw strikes when they needed to,’’ Aker said.

“Coming back to win like this was good for the boys and our home crowd.’’