Delphos Jefferson scored four times in the bottom of the seventh inning, without even making an out, to beat Crestview 6-5 to win the Division IV district baseball title at Coldwater on Friday night.
Aaron Schuerman lined a two-run single to score the winning runs for the Wildcats (20-5), who won the district for the second year in a row.
It was the second fantastic finish in two matchups between the Northwest Conference rivals this season.
During the regular season, Crestview (19-3) scored twice in the bottom of the seventh to edge Jefferson. But this time, it was the Wildcats who got the rally and did the rejoicing.
"It's amazing," Schuerman said. "I'd rather win in the tournament than win the conference."
Jefferson, a team with a half-dozen .400 hitters that scored 10 or more runs 15 times this season, struggled against Crestview starter Kyle Balliet for much of the game before putting together five hits and a walk against him and reliever Nick Ulrey in the seventh.
Jefferson's ace pitcher Mike Rahrig had a few struggles of his own early.
Crestview scored three runs in the top of the first inning, which is exactly the sort of thing it wanted to do against the hard-hitting Wildcats.
"If we could have scripted it, I don't know how we could have done it any better," Crestview coach Jim Wharton said about the Knights' opening salvo.
Through the first three innings, Rahrig walked four batters, hit another and threw a wild pitch. He also had a pitch count into the 80s by the fourth inning, which led to a warning from Jefferson coach Troy Montenery.
"I told him if he got into trouble one more time, I was going to have to come get him," the Jefferson coach said. "But he said, ‘Coach, you might not believe this, but I feel better now than I did early in the game. I can take it the rest of the way.' "
Rahrig, who struck out only one hitter the first three innings, punched out five the rest of the way and didn't walk a batter in the final four innings.
Crestview added single runs in the third and fourth innings and took a 5-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh.
Pinch-hitter Austin Clarkson started the winning rally with a single and Cory Bastian followed with another single to end Balliet's night on the mound.
Sean Fisher greeted Ulrey with a single to load the bases, then Josh Miller singled home two runs to make it 5-4. Ryan Kortokrax walked to load the bases, which brought Schuerman to the plate.
Schuerman saw a high fastball on his game-winning swing. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough.
"It wasn't a strike but I knew I had to protect the plate. I was just trying to put it in play, so I went opposite field," he said.
Montenery said, "At first, I thought the third baseman had a play on it. But when I saw the ball tick off his glove, I knew it was going to settle into a tough spot and the left fielder wasn't going to be able to go over and get it."
The Jefferson coach said his team's experience gave him confidence going into the final inning.
"I really liked the fact we had Austin Clarkson coming up, who had hit .600 in the pinch-hitting role. And we had the top of our order coming up - a senior top of the order, guys who have done it all year, guys who have done it their whole careers.
"What a great day for these guys, for our school and for our community," he said.
Jefferson will play Sidney Lehman at 5 p.m. Thursday in the Huber Heights Wayne regional semifinals.