BUTLER TWP — A seemingly insignificant walk proved to be a spark.

And Butler Township used it, rallying for two runs on four straight hits in the bottom of the seventh for a come-from behind 6-5 victory over Seneca Valley in Butler County Area Baseball League tournament play. The game was played Saturday at the Butler High School field.

Butler (11-4) will host Freeport Tuesday night, the winner going to the league championship game. Seneca Valley (8-9) hosts East Butler at Graham Park Tuesday night in a loser’s bracket game.

No. 8 hitter Hayden Thompson drew a two-out walk for Butler Township with two outs in the bottom of the sixth. Ryan Hepfl hit a fly ball to right field to end the inning.

But the table was set.

“Hayden drawing that walk enabled us to turn the lineup over for the seventh,” Butler Township coach Tyler Friel said. “It definitely set us up.”

So did C.J. Singleton, Butler’s fourth pitcher of the day. He tossed a scoreless top of the seventh in his lone inning of work on the mound.

“When C.J. shut them down and kept it a one-run game, it energized us,” Butler catcher Kyle Yost said. “It was like, OK, let’s go win this game.”

Seneca Valley pitcher Conor Carney allowed seven hits over the first six innings, striking out eight. The walk to Thompson was the only free pass he allowed all day. Seneca Valley got him the lead in the sixth inning on consecutive two-out RBI triples by Seth Baic and Aidan Treu.

But Ethan Trettel, David Leslie and Yost delivered singles to left to begin the Butler seventh. Trettel scored on Yost’s single to tie the game. Leslie and Yost moved up to third and second base, respectively, when the throw in from left field got away.

That brought No. 4 hitter Mattix Clement to the plate.

“I’m going to second-guess myself for a long time for not intentionally walking Clement there,” Seneca Valley coach Matt Baic said. “I went to the mound to talk to Conor. He struck him out twice earlier in the game and thought he could get him again.

“If he got Clement, I was going to walk the next hitter, load the bases and set up for the double play.”

Clement foiled that plan. With two strikes on him, he grounded a single up the middle to win the game.

Butler had only a nine-player roster available Saturday. Leslie started on the mound and worked one inning. Braden Marcellus pitched three frames, Hepfl two and Singleton one.

“”These guys gutted one out today. I loved their effort, the way they stayed after it,“ Friel said.

Seneca Valley nicked Marcellus for a run in the second and two more in the third for a 3-0 lead. A balk allowed one to score and an infield error enabled the other to cross the plate in the third. Ethan Baer was thrown out at the plate by center fielder Clement in the second inning. Seth Baic got picked off first after singling to begin the fourth frame.

“Just too many mistakes today,” Coach Baic said. “We misplayed some balls defensively, too. ”I still think we can come back and win this thing, but we’re gonna have to win three games this week to do it.“

Entering Saturday, Seneca Valley had won five of its past six games.

A four-run Butler third inning wiped out the early 3-0 deficit. Trettel delivered a run-scoring triple, Leslie an RBI double. Marcellus hit a towering fly ball that fell between three defenders in shallow right-center, bringing home two more runs.

“I did not expect to pitch at all today and I threw three innings,” Marcellus said. “When Tyler told me I was next (to pitch), I thought he was kidding. Then I saw he was serious.”

“All four of those pitchers throw differently,” Yost said. “I think that helped contain their bats a bit until we found a way to win.”

Seneca Valley 012 002 0 — 5 11 0

Butler Township 004 000 2 — 6 11 2

None out when winning run scored

W: C.J. Singleton 1IP (0K, 1BB). L: Conor Carney 6IP (8K, 1BB)

Seneca Valley (8-9): Dustin Horn 1B, Ethan Staudt 1B, Conor Carney 1B, Zach Snyder 2B, Gavin Zoelle 1B, Ethan Baer 1B, Seth Baic 3B 1B RBI, Aidan Trweu 1B 3B 2-RBI, Ryan Pospisple 2B

Butler Township (11-4): Ethan Trettel 3B 1B RBI 2-R, David Leslie 2B 1B RBI 2-R, Kyle Yost 2B 2-1B RBI, Mattix Clement 1B RBI, Braden Marcellus 2B 1B 2-RBI, Ryan Hepfl 1B

Tuesday: Freeport at Butler Township, East Butler at Seneca Valley