The Linn-Mar Lions took a break from their normal diet of Class 4A baseball competition Wednesday night to play the Cascade Cougars, who are ranked No.3 in Class 2A.

It did not have a happy ending for Linn-Mar.

Cascade tripped the Lions, 7-5, at the Linn-Mar complex.

The game was tied, 3-3, after three innings, but the visitors scored four runs in the fourth on their way to the non-conference victory. Ben Weber socked a two-run homer for Cascade in the inning.

Austin Stroschein and Jimmy Roth had two hits for Linn-Mar (13-11). Roth had a triple and drove in three runs.

“Cascade is a good team and when our pitchers had trouble locating early we got into trouble,” said Linn-Mar Coach Chad Lechner. “Give them credit, they got key two-out and two-strike hits. We need to improve our execution.

“We had too many strikeouts with runners on base and in scoring opportunities,” said Lechner. “We have to have more timely hitting and make the plays on defense.”

Linn-Mar hosts Kennedy Friday at 5 p.m.

CASCADE (7): Gehl, ss, 3 1 1 1, Takes, cf, 4 2 2 1, Lieurance, 3b, 5 1 3 2, Monternach, 1b, 3 1 1 1, Weber, c, 3 1 1 2, Bergfeld, dh, 4 0 0 0, Myers, p, 0 0 0 0, Rausch, 2b, 3 0 0 0, Noonan, rf, 4 0 1 0, Junk, lf, 3 1 0 0. Totals 32 7 9 7.

LINN-MAR (5): Mortensen, cf, 4 1 1 0, Strellner, ss, 4 1 1 0, Stickney, p/rf, 3 2 1 1, Stroschein, 3b, 3 1 2 1, Roth, 2b, 2 0 2 3, Reimer, 1b, 3 0 0 0, Ollinger c, 3 0 0 0, Bettmann, cr, 0 0 0 0, Jennings, lf/p, 3 0 0 0, Larson, rf/lf, 0 1 0 0, McCullough, p, 0 0 0 0. Totals 27 5 8 5.

Cascade   210 400 0 - 7 9 1
Linn-Mar   201 020 0 - 5 8 5

Myers and Weber. Stickney, McCullough (3), Jennings (4) and Ollinger. W - Myers. L - McCullough. 2B - Takes, Lieurance, Mortensen, Strellner. 3B - Roth. HR - Weber. SB Gehl, Takes, Manternach.