Lady Luck has been smiling on the Spanish Springs baseball team for a long time. A 19-game winning streak is proof of that. However, the Cougars’ winning streak and luck ran out Wednesday in a 16-14 High Desert League road loss at McQueen.

Spanish Springs held a 14-8 lead as McQueen came up for its final offensive turn in the bottom of the seventh. The host Lancers proceeded to score eight runs — capped by reserve Blaze Byington’s walk-off grand slam — to cap a comeback win.

It was the first varsity home run for the senior Byington, who did not even make the Lancers’ roster as a junior.

To make matters worse for Spanish Springs, the Cougars committed two errors in the bottom of the seventh and could have preserved their lead and the win by cleanly making either play.

“We had a deep fly ball where both of our outfielders converged but did not communicate and the ball fell between them,” Spanish Springs coach Mike Bosco said. “And there was a groundball to shortstop that we mishandled so we gave them five outs in the bottom of the seventh.

“They must have had six or seven balls to our fielders that hopped over our heads. The surface was just not great. With that playing surface there was no such thing as a routine ground ball. And we took advantage of it as much as they did ... Two of our five losses have come after walk-off home runs, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less.”

The loss may prove costly for Spanish Springs (23-5, 12-4 HDL). A win would have locked up the HDL’s No. 2 seed and a home playoff game in the first round of next week’s Northern 4A regional tournament.

The teams play single games today at Spanish Springs and Friday at Aces Ballpark. Both will start at 3:45 p.m. If the Cougars win either, they will be the HDL’s runner-up but a McQueen sweep of the three-game conference series would vault the Lancers (17-10, 11-5) into the second slot and leave the Cougars with the No. 3 seed and traveling in the first round of the postseason.

“It definitely makes the series more interesting,” Bosco said. “We don’t want to lose ever, by any means. But it is kind of a relief. People were asking how long can you keep this winning streak up. So now that’s over. Sure we want to keep rolling but the target is off our backs. We’ll just get back to business and hopefully take care of it tomorrow.”

Spanish Springs trailed 6-5 after five innings, but exploded for eight runs in the top of the sixth to grab a 13-6 edge. McQueen got two back in the bottom of inning six to make it 13-8. The Cougars tacked on a single run in the top of the seventh, accounting for the 14-8 lead and setting the stage for McQueen’s late-game heroics.

- Fernley 7, Sparks 4 -

•A late lead got away from another Rail City school Wednesday. Sparks led 4-3 as Fernley came up in the bottom of the sixth. Unfortunately for the visiting Railroaders, they gave up four runs to the Vaqueros in the bottom of the sixth and could not score again en route to the 3A North League loss.

Fernley took a quick 2-0 lead by posting a pair of runs in the bottom of the first. Sparks answered with two runs of its own in the top of the third. After Fernley took a 3-2 edge in the fourth, Sparks tied the game with a single score in the fifth and took a 4-3 lead with another run in the sixth.

Dennis Morrelli tossed a complete game in defeat for Sparks (5-17, 4-11). He struck out eight and walked four while giving up 10 Vaqueros hits.

Andrew Garcia was the lone Railroader with more than one hit, finishing 2-for-3 at the plate.

Sparks and Fernley meet up again Saturday in a twin bill that begins at 11 a.m. Saturday at SHS.