Senior Grant Huskey‘s sacrifice fly scored junior Jake Fritz in the bottom of the seventh to lift North Allegheny to a 4-3 walk-off win over Seneca Valley on Thursday night in Section 1-6A action. The victory vaults the Tigers into sole possession of second place in the section standings, while the Raiders drop to third place.

Eerily similar to Seneca Valley’s game two win, the Raiders capitalized on NA miscues for an early lead. In the top of the second inning, SV scored three runs on just one hit, capitalizing on four walks, a balk and a wild pitch for a 3-0 lead. The only RBI of the inning came on a sacrifice fly by Mason Fisher, who went 3-for-3 with a double and a pair of singles.

Seneca Valley starting pitcher Andrew Palano was efficient in his first three innings on the bump, but ran into trouble in the bottom of the fourth. Sophomore Ben Kern led off the inning with a base hit and moved to second on a walk by junior Christian Simons. Junior Dominic Williamson laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners and reached as well on a Seneca Valley throwing error. With the bases loaded and nobody out, junior Gavin Ust delivered a two-run double to cut the deficit to 3-2. Later in the inning, Williamson raced home on a passed ball to knot the score at 3-3.

From there, the bullpens for both teams took hold, keeping the game deadlocked deep into the game. For NA, senior Garrett Evanish was the first out of the bullpen in the second inning and tossed 2.1 scoreless innings, followed by Fritz with three innings of one-hit relief. Seneca Valley reliever Luis Torrenegra entered the game in the fourth inning and wiggled out of a jam by leaving two runners stranded. From the fourth through the sixth innings, the Raiders’ southpaw retired eight consecutive batters, including five strikeouts. However, Torrenegra, who started and was the losing pitcher in game one of the series, allowed a leadoff single to Fritz to start the bottom of the seventh. A single by Mason Dratfinsky advanced Fritz to third base to put runners at the corners with no outs. Seneca Valley elected to intentionally walk junior J.J. Mancuso to load the bases, setting the stage for Huskey’s heroics and walk-off sacrifice fly.

Fritz not only scored the game-winning run, but also earned the win in relief to earn Wright Automotive Player of the Game honors. Torrenegra suffered the loss for the Raiders with three innings out of the bullpen, allowing one run with one walk and five strikeouts.

North Allegheny leaps to 9-5 overall and 6-3 in Section 1-6A following the win, while Seneca Valley slips to 10-7 overall and 5-4 in the section. The Tigers will host Fox Chapel on Friday night for a non-section contest.