Ben McMillen came to the plate with a simple thought in his head in the bottom of the 13th inning.

“Just do my job and help the team as best as I can,” McMillen said.

That meant ending a marathon game for the Knoch baseball team with a double that scored Mike McCarty for a 5-4 win Wednesday afternoon over Deer Lakes at Kelly Automotive Park.

“It's a big win because we know both our team and their team are competitors and we bring the best out of each other,” McMillen said. “Both teams worked really hard tonight and I'm just glad we came out on top.”

Knoch trailed Deer Lakes 4-3 heading into the bottom of the seventh, but McMillen led off with a single, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI single by Derek McGill.

The teams then put a string of zeros on the scoreboard until the 13th.

Dominick Bucko got the win in relief for Knoch, pitching four scoreless innings. He retired the first 11 Lancers he faced and 12 out of 13.

Brandon Kowalski was also effective in relief for Knoch. He took the mound in the top of the fifth inning and tossed five scoreless innings.

“Unbelievable,” said Knoch coach Sean O'Donnell. “Every single guy out there did what we asked them to do today. It was going to be hard for whichever team ended up losing that game. For our guys, our pitching staff, to hold them to no runs after the third inning with the way they can hit the ball — we just kept battling.”

Jack Bartek got the start for Knoch and gave up four runs — two earned — in four innings.

Knoch staked him to a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the second inning thanks to a pair of singles, and three walks from a suddenly wild Deer Lakes starter Zach Lubick.

But the Lancers got the lead back with three runs of their own in the top of the third on RBIs from Lubick, Jake McCaskey and Jake Spirnock.

McCaskey ended up getting the loss despite pitching well in relief for 6 2/3 innings.

“I couldn't be more proud of our pitching staff,” said Deer Lakes coach Josh Tysk. “We just needed to find one more hit to get one more run early in the game.”

Bucko has come into his own on the mound this season by harnessing control of his lively fastball and throwing his bending curveball for strikes.

He didn't walk a batter and struck out four in his nearly flawless relief work.

Bucko, who will play next year at Kent State University, has now struck out 12 and walked just two in eight innings of relief this season.

“We told him if he needs to take a couple of miles per hour off of it and get it over the plate, that's good,” O'Donnell said. “We told him he throws plenty hard enough. When you throw as hard as he does and then you can throw an off-speed pitch like he does on top of it, there's not going to be too many guys who can hit that off-speed pitch.”

The win was also big when it comes to the section standing.

Knoch is now tied for first place with Deer Lakes with the first half of the section schedule coming to a close Friday.

“That was a great game. You saw the battle from both teams,” O'Donnell said. “We have a ton of respect for those guys and that coaching staff and how they play and how they do things. We knew it was going to be a dogfight today — we just didn't know we were going to be here for this long.

“It's great to come out of a game like this with a win.”

Deer Lakes 103 000 000 000 0 — 4 9 1

Knoch 030 000 100 000 1 — 5 9 1

2 outs when winning run scored

W: Dominick Bucko 4IP (3K, 0BB). L: Jake McCaskey 6.2IP (4K, 1BB).

Deer Lakes (7-3, 5-1): Shawn Logan 1B, Zach Lubick 3-1B RBI, McCaskey 2-2B 2-RBI, Jake Spirnock RBI, Dave Kozlowski 2-1B, Mike Hilliard 1B

Knoch (7-4, 5-1): Bucko 1B, Brandon Kowalski 1B, Mike McCarty 2-1B, Jake Herrit 1B, Ben McMillen 1B 2B 2-RBI, Derek McGill 1B RBI

Friday: Knoch at Freeport