Phil Stokes loves baseball. And why shouldn't he? His Stroudsburg team entered play on Friday with a 16-1 record and a District 11 Class AAAA playoff berth in hand.

But with his squad scheduled to play seven games this week, it would have been understandable if the Mounties had a letdown somewhere along the way.And yesterday's Eastern Pennsylvania Conference game against Pleasant Valley looked like just the right time for that to happen, with the Bears fighting for a spot in the postseason and Stroudsburg playing its fourth consecutive game on the road.What followed was a contest that typified the rivalry between the two schools.With darkness creeping in and neither side willing to give an inch, Stroudsburg was able to take advantage of a few Pleasant Valley miscues to claim a 7-4 victory in 11 innings."Why not play 11?," Stokes said with a smile afterwards.After three scoreless innings, the Mounties (17-1) began to generate some offense in the top of the 11th when Eric Pugliesi opened the inning by ripping the ball down the third base line.James Cramer followed and reached on a single, Beau Breithaupt found his way on with a perfectly executed bunt and Luc Cibischino did so via error to give the visitors three consecutive base runners.When all was said and done, Stroudsburg scored three runs to finally seize control of the game and break the deadlock.The Bears (7-10, 6-9) had a chance to answer when Matthew Pierce drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the inning. But Mounties' reliever CJ Lopez was able to retire the next three batters he faced to end it."I'm very proud of the effort from our guys today. You really can't ask for more," said Pleasant Valley head coach Charlie Inserra. "But the bottom line is both teams had opportunities to end this game and we didn't cash in. Both teams got breaks throughout, we just didn't cash in."In a game like this, you'd always like to have a few plays back, and I'd maybe like to have that bases loaded, one out situation back."Trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh, Pleasant Valley forced extra innings with a rally that started with a one out single from Brett Hardy, who finished with three hits.Starting pitcher Travis VanHouten followed with a single of his own, and Nick Domenici walked to load the bases. Walker Wentzler tied the score at 4-4 without swinging his bat, drawing another walk to score Hardy.But Lopez settled down, striking out Kieran Kearns and getting Eric Bond to fly out to finish the inning and end the Bears' scoring opportunity."All in all, we just missed some chances. But I'm very proud of these guys," Inserra said. "This is the best team (Stroudsburg) in the division, and second best team in the league. It would have been real easy for them to just cave when they took the lead. But they didn't."Pleasant Valley took a 2-0 lead after the first inning on RBI singles from VanHouten and Wentzler, who finished with two runs batted in.But Stroudsburg responded with three runs in the top of the third, before the Bears tied it in the fifth when Hardy came around to score on an error.VanHouten and Matthew Konopke each finished with two hits.Stroudsburg 003 000 100 03 - 7 15 2Pleasant Vy. 200 010 100 00 - 4 11 4Pugliesi, Lopez (7) and Breithaupt; VanHouten, Domenici and Wentzler, Pandolfo (7). W - Lopez. L - Domenici.