A seemingly well-earned victory slipped out of Medford’s grasp Tuesday night, leaving the Rogues with a desire for a mulligan at Harry & David Field.

Looking to beat a team that swept them in three games during their California road trip last week, the Rogues saw a six-run eighth inning by the Healdsburg Prune Packers clip their hopes in a 7-4 loss after leading for nearly the entire game.

Fighting for and then letting go of leads has been a theme that Rogues manager Nate Esposito has seen throughout Pacific Empire League games.

“I would say so far in conference, it’s been the moral of the story for us,” Esposito said. “When we play our butts off and we put up a lead, we walk too many guys. We drill too many guys and then there’s a big hit.”

“We have to keep our foot on the gas pedal and slam the door shut,” he added. “We just can’t take our foot off the gas pedal, these guys are way too talented for us to let that happen.”

In the first few innings, it looked like the door was shut with Levi Jones supplying an RBI grounder in the first inning and a two-run double to center field to take a 4-1 lead.

Cody Nitowitz also went 3-for-4 and scored a run for Medford (11-10, 1-6 PEL), while Tyler Horner provided two hits.

Medford’s defense also looked nearly impenetrable for stretches, forcing the Prune Packers to go three-and-out in five innings — Healdsburg only got on base in the first, fifth, seventh and eighth innings.

Medford pitcher Jackson Muir was efficient in six innings of pitching, registering three strikeouts and one run allowed on two hits.

At the top of the eighth inning, Healdsburg (17-0) rallied after loading the bases and tied the score at 4-all with two walks and a hit by pitch before Joey Kramer floated a two-run single into right field to seal the score at 7-4.

“We need to play nine innings,” said Esposito. “That needs to happen from an offensive standpoint, a defensive standpoint and from the mound. I feel like if we are not striking from all those cylinders, the whole car falls apart. We’ve got to find a way to keep that from happening.”

Nitowitz agreed that it was a game that should have been in their grasp and said that it was a battle of adjustments with the Prune Packers in their fourth matchup in a week.

“It was a good team game,” Nitowitz said. “We played well, made some adjustments on the road and came out playing hard. That’s a game that we deserve to win, just like (Esposito) said in the huddle at the end of the game.”

“They have a lot of good players,” added the left fielder. “There were some really good at-bats and they were able to turn the game around so props to them. We’ve just got to keep the foot on the gas and just work through it.

“It was just the game of baseball, momentum can change in an instant. But we’re looking to come out (Wednesday) and really just play hard and play our game.”

The three-game series between the teams runs through Thursday, with each game starting at 6:30 p.m.

Healdsburg 100 000 060 — 7 6 2

Medford 200 200 000 — 4 8 1

Kaase, Wooster (4), Staisioski (9) and Lance; Muir, Mejia (7), Stewart (8) and Fernandez. W — Wooster. L — Mejia. 2B — M: Jones.