DETROIT — Duane Anger told his kids that last year’s upset loss to Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett in the Catholic League Cardinal title game would be a life lesson.

Macomb Lutheran North players celebrate the bases-loaded walk by Katherine Martin that gave them a 6-5 win over Wixom St. Catherine in the CHSL Cardinal Division championship game at University of Detroit-Mercy on Tuesday, May 24, 2022. (MATTHEW B. MOWERY — MediaNews Group)

And, considering the outcome of Tuesday’s CHSL Cardinal Division championship at University of Detroit-Mercy’s Buysse Ballpark — when the Mustangs had to rally for three runs in the bottom of the seventh to beat Wixom St. Catherine, 6-5 — it appears they learned it.

And now, it’ll be the young Stars who have to sit with that sinking feeling until next season.

“We’ve been on both sides of this thing,” Anger said, admitting last year’s lesson was big in the comeback. “Huge. Huge. … It’s just like the team last year didn’t quit didn’t give up. And they know that. … I tell them, ‘Listen, relax, just go and play ball. It’s only a game. Whatever happens, happens.’”

After St. Catherine took a 4-3 lead with a three-run fifth inning, and extended it to 5-3 in the top of the seventh, the Mustangs (25-0) tied it up on an error and an RBI single by Anna Brouillette, leaving runners on second and third. St. Catherine coach Bob Green loaded the bases to give his team an out at any bag, then got a strikeout to put them within a double play of sending the game to extra innings, but Katherine Martin drew a bases-loaded walk to plate the game-winning run.

“They’ve been in this position four times this year where they’ve been behind. And I’ve told them out there, ‘Relax, you’re gonna win this ballgame,’” said Anger, whose squad won its first CHSL title in 2019. “I told them, I said ‘I don’t lie, do I?’ But I know they never quit. They keep trying. I couldn’t be happier.”

For the Stars (15-5-2), who won the title back in 2014, and were runners-up the next season, the feeling is just the opposite.

“We haven’t beaten these guys a couple of years so … We played them really tight at their place, last Friday actually. Thought we had it, but just wasn’t meant to be,” Green said. “I was talking with my coach Dave (Skown), hopefully it’ll motivate the kids next spring, in the winter when it’s really important to motivate. And now that we have a taste of it — we’ve hyped it up for a month or so. Now they have a taste of it, they’ll build on it for sure.”

The Mustangs jumped out to a 3-0 lead, on the strength of first-inning RBI groundout by Cecila Schihl and RBI singles by Emma Shannon and Sophia Heidrich.

Wixom St. Catherine players celebrate a solo home run by Soseh Broglin (8) in the fourth inning of the CHSL Cardinal Division title game at University of Detroit-Mercy on Tuesday, May 24, 2022. Macomb Lutheran North rallied to win, 6-5. (MATTHEW B. MOWERY — MediaNews Group)

After that, it would be a pitchers’ duel between Schihl and St. Catherine freshman Soseh Broglin, until Broglin cranked a leadoff home run to start the fourth, her 10th of the season.

“We tried to pitch off the plate and she’s still got the bat on the ball. She’s a great ballplayer. She’s only a freshman,” Anger said. “I’m gonna be worried about her for the next three years.”

The Stars took the lead in the with on an RBI single by Rachel Tura and a two-run single by Katie Hans to lead 4-3.

After Tura gunned out the potential tying run at the plate from center field to keep the one-run lead, Frankie Ventura doubled it with a leadoff homer in the seventh, but the Stars left the bags loaded in the inning.

“I felt good about having the two runs, but we knew they had their 3-4-5 hitters coming up,” Green said. “I’d have rather seen 7-8-9.”

Broglin took the loss, striking out seven. Schihl, who led off the seventh-inning rally with a single, followed by a Shannon double, got the win, striking out nine.