Early errors and a late blown lead doomed the Pioneers Tuesday night, dropping a difficult contest to the Casper Drillers 9-7.

The Pioneers (33-21-1 overall) started out strong with Jacob Gibson on the mound forcing out the first three batters for the Drillers (35-13-1 overall).

Powell continued that momentum at the plate in the bottom half of the first inning.

Jhett Schwahn walked, and advanced to second on a wild pitch during Cade Queen’s at bat. Queen hit a single that moved Schwahn to third, who scored on a sacrifice fly by Trey Stenerson.

Gibson again continued strong on the mound, forcing the Drillers into ground balls and fly outs to retire another three batters.

Powell got two runners on immediately in the second through an error on Ethan Welch’s hit and Dalton Worstell was hit in the helmet by a pitch.

Despite having two runners on with no outs, the Pioneers were not able to add any additional runs keeping the score at 1-0.

Gibson’s perfect start was broken up in the top of the third inning on a walk, and that is when troubles began for the Pioneers.

Three errors on the same play gave Casper momentum. A ball squeezed past Brock Johnson’s glove, was bobbled in the outfield by Worstell and an overthrow home brought in a run to make it 1-1.

“When one thing started to go wrong it all kind of compounded and blew up in our face,” Pioneers Manager Jason Borders said.

Another error on a catch by Welch pushed the ball into the outfield, bringing in another run and making the score 2-1.

Powell was able to escape the inning without any further damage.

In the bottom half of the third inning, Powell got a lead-off single from Schwahn, along with Stenerson and Aidan Wantulok’s singles to load the bases with only one out.

Welch got hit by a pitch to bring in Schwahn and tie the game.

Worstell then hit into a fielder’s choice that scored Stenerson and gave Powell the lead at 3-2.

Neither team got a run in the fourth or fifth innings, setting up two key final innings.

Casper got two runners on in the top of the sixth inning through a single and an error.

The Drillers got the tying run on a wild pitch, making the score 3-3.

Gibson led off the bottom half of the sixth with a single, and advanced on two wild pitches to give Powell the leading run at third base.

Johnson hit a ground ball, and the fielder’s choice was a throw home where Gibson was tagged out, leaving the game tied 3-3.

Johnson advanced to second on the same play.

Schwahn walked, and both runners advanced on steals during Queen’s at bat — giving Powell two runners in scoring position.

Queen singled, scoring Johnson to give Powell the lead 4-3.

Stenerson hit a double to deep center field, bringing in both runners and extending the lead to 6-3.

An errant throw by Casper on a ball hit to third by Welch scored Stenerson from second and gave Powell a 7-3 lead heading into the seventh inning.

That is when the game turned against the Pioneers.

Two walks and a pitching change started the inning, followed by a single that drove in one run.

A ground ball into a fielder’s choice scored another, but the Pioneers were unable to get an out because the runners were called safe at first and second — cutting the lead to 7-5.

A single loaded the bases with no outs for Casper.

A ground ball fielded by Johnson got one out, but another run scored to make it 7-6.

Another error brought in the tying run with runners at second and third with only one out.

A walk loaded the bases once again, and Stenerson was brought in to pitch.

Stenerson struck out one, but a single by the next batter scored both runners to make it 9-7 Casper.

Powell got out of the inning without any more harm, but the damage was already done.

“It was just one of those days, I do not know what caused it,” Borders said. “It was so uncharacteristic of this team that I really cannot explain what happened.”

A walk to Gibson led off the seventh inning for the Pioneers, and later a single by Schwahn put two runners on with two outs.

A pop out ended the game, as Casper claimed the late victory over the Pioneers 9-7 and advanced to the winner’s bracket semifinal.

Powell out hit Casper 9-6, but eight errors sealed the fate of the Pioneers.

The eight errors were the most this season for Powell.

Powell dropped down to the consolation bracket, facing Lovell on Wednesday at 1 p.m.

The winner of that game advances to the semifinals on Thursday at 2 p.m. in Cody.

The result between Powell and Lovell was determined after the press deadline.