Through the first two innings Monday, Starr’s Mill’s Ed Cook was having a night he would soon like to forget.

He gave up seven runs in less than two innings, watching his team fall behind 7-0 to crosstown rival Fayette County, before he was pulled in favor of Myles Jaye on the mound.

Cook atoned for his dismal outing hours later in the game, driving in the go-ahead run with a double and scoring an insurance run in the 10th inning of Starr’s Mill’s 9-7 come-from-behind victory over host Fayette in a Region 2-AAAA game.

“Ed has been unhittable all year,” Starr’s Mill coach Brent Moseley said, “but he was off tonight. He needed that [game-winning hit].”

Perhaps nobody attending the game could have imagined the game extending to 10 innings, especially after Fayette rocked Cook for six runs — five with two outs — in the second inning to take a 7-0 lead.

John Campbell’s first-pitch solo home run over the right-field fence put Fayette ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the first inning, and then Fayette put on a hitting display in the second inning, pounding out six hits.

Barack Little began Fayette’s big inning with a leadoff double to left field and, one batter later, Matthew Jackson drove in Chris Crittenden, pinch-running for Little, with a single to center field.

Mitch Ward and Derek Johnson went on to hit two-out RBI singles in the inning, and Sean Finn capped the scoring explosion with a three-run blast over the center-field fence.

Fayette was doing its best impression of “Murderers’ Row,” but Starr’s Mill’s pitching, led by Jaye and Drew Johnson, rebounded dramatically, not allowing another run the rest of the way.

And its bats awakened in the fourth, in which Starr’s Mill scored four runs.

Kevin Koziol drove in a run with a groundout, Cook, who had walked, scored on a passed ball, Ken Jackson hit a two-out RBI double to right field, and Drew Johnson completed the scoring in the inning with an RBI single to center field.

Starr’s Mill’s comeback was only beginning.

Drew Johnson lined an RBI double off the right-field fence, and Starr’s Mill added two runs on a throwing error on a grounder hit by Cook with the bases loaded in the sixth to tie the game at 7.

Neither team scored again until Cook’s RBI double in the 10th.

Moseley was confident all along that, despite facing a seven-run deficit, his team could rally and win.

“We felt we could score and come back if we could hold them,” Moseley said. “After that seven-run inning, we didn’t let them score after that. We just battled back.”

Fayette had a prime opportunity to pull out the victory in the bottom of the tenth; its top hitter, power-hitting catcher Sean Finn, was at the plate with the bases loaded and two outs.

Drew Johnson slammed the door on Fayette by getting Finn to swing on a 3-2 pitch in the dirt.

Drew Johnson was stellar in relief for Starr’s Mill, striking out seven and allowing no runs, four hits and no walks in three-plus innings to record the victory.

Jaye also was impressive in relief, striking out three and giving up no runs, two walks and three hits in four-plus innings.

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