With a chance to strengthen its lead atop the CCAC standings, St. Ambrose watched it slip away in a seven-run sixth inning Tuesday. Trinity Christian used the big inning to rally for a 9-7 win over SAU at NelsonCorp Field in Clinton, Iowa.

The loss dropped the Bees from sole possession of first place in the conference. St. Ambrose, now 20-23 overall and 15-8 in the CCAC, fell into a second-place tie with Saint Xavier (15-8). St. Francis took over first place with a 16-8 league mark.

Two big home runs helped the Bees to an early lead over the Trolls Tuesday. Adrian Zietara smoked a two-run homer to left in the third inning to put the Bees up 2-1. Then following a Cooper Huckabone RBI triple, Brock Webber launched a two-run shot down the right-field line to extend the lead to 5-2 in the fifth.

But after allowing just two runs on five hits over the first five innings, SAU was touched up for seven runs on seven hits in the sixth.

Huckabone got one run back with a run-scoring double to center in the seventh, and Noah McCrery cut the deficit to 9-7 with an RBI single to plate Mike Pawyza in the eighth.

St. Ambrose threatened for more but stranded a pair of base runners in the eighth. Then, in the ninth, Jake Mucha reached on a one-out error and Chris McFarland followed with a single up the middle. But with the potential tying runs on base, Pawyza and Nate Villagomez were retired to end the threat.

Huckabone finished 3-for-4 and Webber was 2-for-5. Each drove in a pair.

Nick Vollmert was charged with the loss after allowing four runs over two innings in relief. He entered in place of Hayden Kingsbury, who gave up two runs over 3 1/3 innings. Parker Ruth, Grant Baker and Hunter Keim combined to throw the final 3 2/3 innings.

The Bees are scheduled to return to Clinton to host Trinity International in a single nine-inning game Friday before playing a doubleheader at Trinity International Saturday.