CRANBERRY TWP — The similarity between Seneca Valley’s season and its effort in the final game can’t be ignored.

The team was 2-6 at the start of July, but won 10 of its next 13 games to reach Thursday’s championship game of the Butler County Area Baseball League.

Trailing Butler Township 7-1 after three and a half innings, things looked bleak for Matt Baic’s team. But a seven-run frame gave SV the lead and Gavin Zoelle put an exclamation point on the season two hours later.

With the game knotted at 10-all in the bottom of the eighth, his one-out single to right field drove in Seth Baic from second base and SV’s players celebrated the 11-10 victory at Graham Park.

“I knew it had a chance (to get down for a hit),” Zoelle said of the ball he hit off Butler reliever Mattix Clement. “And I knew Seth had the speed to score.

“There was still a lot of game left,” he added of SV’s earlier deficit. “We had to keep our heads up.”

It was a wild affair. Butler tied the game at 8-all in the top of the sixth and again at 10-all in the seventh. But over the final three frames, Butler (12-6) stranded six runners on base, including the bases loaded in the sixth.

One player who came through for Butler was Kaleb Wojnar. His one-out double in the seventh plated Clement and Braden Marcellus to tie the game at 10.

“Kudos to Seneca (13-9) for pulling it out, but we had so many opportunities,” said Butler coach Ty Friel. “It’s tough to win a game when you leave that many guys out there.”

SV’s Aidan Treu began the game on the bench, but answered the call when teammate and catcher Bady Martin was injured in the third inning.

Treu drilled a two-run home run that tied the game at 7-all in the fourth.

“I’m usually more of a contact over power guy, but it was a 3-1 count and I figured I would get something good to hit,” he said.

Both teams felt the sting of poor control on the mound. Butler’s six-run third frame included three runs scoring on wild pitches. Four of SV’s seven runs in the fourth came on errant offerings.

Casey Wilkins, who had pitched a complete game Tuesday in a 13-4 win over Butler, which forced Thursday’s contest, took the mound in the third inning and left before getting an out.

“We knew it was going to be two innings at most (for Wilkins),” SV coach Matt Baic said. “The league rule says that no player can pitch more than nine innings in a three-day span. We were planning to start Conor Carney, but he was unable to go. We had to switch things around in a hurry.”

SV starter Ryan Pospistle worked the first two innings and Ethan Baer relieved Wilkins with no outs in the third. Baer worked the rest of the game to earn the victory.

Prior to Clement working the eighth inning, Butler used pitchers Logan Koegler (3 1/3 innings), Marcellus (1 2/3) and Mac Schnur (2).

Matt Baic was proud of the effort, both in the game and over the last four weeks.

“When we were 2-6, I told the players I thought we were still the best team in the league,” he said. “We just needed to get the right mix of players in the games.

“Hats off to Tyler and the Butler team,” Baic added. “We could play 50 times and both teams would win 25.”

Friel acknowledged: “It was a great season. These guys competed and I’d take my chances with them any day.”

1 out when winning run scored

Butler Township 106 001 20 — 10 7 3

Seneca Valley 100 702 01 — 11 11 2

W: Ethan Baer 6 IP (6K, 5BB). L: Mattix Clement .1 IP (0K, 2BB).

Butler Township: Kyle Yost 1B R RBI, David Leslie 3B 2R, Mattix Clement 1B 2R RBI, Braden Marcellus 1B 2R RBI, Kaleb Wojnar 1B 2B 2RBI

Seneca Valley: Seth Baic 2B 3R RBI, Zach Snyder 3-1B R 2RBI, Gavin Zoelle 1B R RBI, Dustin Horn 1B 2B R, Connor Dague 2-1B R, Aidan Treu HR 2RBI