TUNNEL HILL, Ga. - Game three of the GHSA Class AAAA first-round baseball series at Northwest Whitfield could have garnered first-class ratings as a reality show.
In what amounted to baseball's version of "Survivor," the host Bruins rallied from a two-run deficit early and a one-run deficit in the seventh to send the decisive game against Stephens County into extra innings Saturday. That's when it got really weird as Northwest twice built three-run leads only to lose them, finally falling in 10 innings, 10-9.
"We had plenty of chances to win this game, but they kept coming and we couldn't find that last out," said Northwest coach Todd Middleton, whose team outhit the Indians 16-9. "They couldn't either for a while. We just ran out of tricks, I guess."
Northwest (21-10), the Region 6-AAAA champion, actually ran out of pitching. Starter David Ramirez was solid for eight innings but had to leave after reaching his pitch-count limit with a run in, one on and one out in the ninth after the Bruins - designated visitors for the best-of-three series finale - had scored three times in the top half of the inning.
Reliever Andrew Asche recorded an out against the first batter he faced, but an infield error extended the inning and brought Stephens County within a run. Two batters later, a wild pitch brought in the tying run, sending the game to the 10th.
Northwest opened with singles from Jack Brock and Caleb Womac, a one-out RBI single from Seth Godfrey and a two-run single from Grant Terrell to once again assume a three-run lead, 9-6.
However, the Indians loaded the bases with one out on an error, hit batter and single, and Asche walked Dawson Sorrells to bring in one run. Middleton brought in reliever Cameron Womac, who also could not get that elusive out.
Kole Rogers greeted him with a two-run single to tie it before Kooper Briley walked to reload the bases. Womac induced a forceout at home but walked Austin Page on five pitches to bring in the winning run.
Northwest - which had rallied to win the second game Friday with a seven-run seventh inning - used RBI singles from Sebastian Orozsco and Hank Bearden in the sixth and Michael Pipken's sacrifice fly in the seventh to tie Saturday's game after managing just two hits over the first four innings.
"David did a great job for nearly nine innings, but we just didn't get enough of a lead for him," Middleton said. "We hit the ball better - a lot of good things happened - we just couldn't finish it."
Orozsco, Bearden and Ramirez had three hits each for the Bruins, with Godfrey and Caleb Womac adding two each.
Stephens County (19-14), the No. 4 seed from Region 8, had just four hits over the final two innings, but six walks and a pair of Northwest errors allowed the Indians to stick around and pull out the series win. They advance to a second-round matchup this week at Region 4 runner-up Luella, which swept Perry.
"This is my 26th year of coaching baseball, and this is the most exciting game I've been involved in," Stephens County coach Greg McCall said. "To get down three runs twice and to come back to reach the sweet 16 is amazing. I'm worn out and I know my kids are, but they could have played all day for this."
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@ timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.