CRANBERRY TWP — Pine Richland found a way — again.

Despite committing seven errors and trailing 6-0 in the sixth inning Saturday night at Graham Park, the defending Butler County Area Baseball League champion rallied to edge West Sunbury, 7-6, in 11 innings in the tournament title game.

It marked the third time in the double-elimination tournament that PR (15-7) rallied to tie a game in the seventh inning and win in extra frames.

“I don't know what it is about these guys,” PR coach Brad Ansell said. “They never quit. They never give up on a game.

“A lot of these guys came back from vacation to play this game. We were flat in the beginning. Somehow, we found a spark late.”

Pine Richland had not played since the previous Sunday. West Sunbury (9-14) was playing its fourth game in seven days — and was set to stave off tourney elimination for a fifth time.

Brady Thompson's RBI single and Shane Thompson's run-scoring ground ball gave West Sunbury a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Tanner Williams walked, stole second, moved to third on an outfield error and scored on an infield out to hike that margin to 3-0 in the third.

Shane Thompson's two-run homer to right — his second round-tripper of the tournament — highlighted a three-run fifth and gave West Sunbury a 6-0 lead.

Meanwhile, Zack Thompson was making quick work of Pine Richland's bats.

The right-hander allowed only two hits in the first five innings, throwing 80 pitches in the process. Thomas Connell singled and scored on a throwing error and Chuck Spontak nicked Thompson for a run-scoring single in the sixth.

“That kid throws hard and has a nice curve ball,” Spontak said. “He kept the ball down and gave us all kinds of trouble.

“He was the best pitcher we've faced all year.”

But when Pine Richland began the seventh with a walk, hit batsman and Justin Lowe's RBI single, West Sunbury coach Matt Williams inserted Zach Caldwell on the mound.

“Zack pitched an incredible game,” Williams said. “He gave us all he had. But he was tiring.”

Caldwell gave up a pair of singles following an infield error as Pine Richland knotted the game at 6 and had the winning run at second with nobody out.

But Caldwell escaped further trouble by striking out a pair and inducing a ground ball to second.

Brady Thompson tossed a scoreless eighth and ninth for West Sunbury and Dean Hershey tossed a scoreless 10th. But West Sunbury's bats had dried up.

After Nick Ayres led off West Sunbury's seventh with a single, Spontak retired the final 15 batters he faced. Replacing starter Nick Guidas in the third inning, he threw 156 pitches in nine innings.

“It's conditioning,” Spontak said. “I never felt tired at all.”

Because the BCABL has a nine-inning pitch limit for a day, “I would have to had gone to somebody else the next inning,” Ansell said.

The next inning never came.

A walk and two hit batsmen loaded the bases with two outs for Pine Richland in the bottom of the 11th. Brett Jones — who struck out to end the seventh and ninth innings with the winning run at third base — walked on a 3-2 pitch to end the game and the season.

“I couldn't be prouder of my team,” Williams said. “We battled as hard as we could. We just ran out of pitching.”

West Sunbury stranded the bases loaded in the fourth inning, left runners at second and third in the fifth and sixth frames.

“We had chances to nail down the coffin and didn't do it,” Williams said. “That was a big part of what happened.”

West Sunbury 20103000000 — 6 8 4

Pine Richland 00000240001 — 7 10 7

W: Chuck Spontak 9IP (8K, 4BB). L: Dean Hershey 1.2IP (2K, 2BB)

West Sunbury (9-14): Tanner Williams 2-R, Zack Thompson 3-1B 2-R, Brady Thompson 1B 2-RBI, Shane Thompson HR 3-RBI, Zach Caldwell 1B, Nick Ayers 1B, AJ McElravy 2B

Pine Richland (15-7): Justin Lowe 2-1B RBI, Thomas Connell 2-1B 3-R, Ben Chleboski 2-1B 2-RBI, Nick Guidas 1B RBI, Chuck Spontak 2B 1B RBI, Brett Jones RBI, Ethan O'Neil 1B