Pitching is precious in high school baseball.

Section wins are a more valuable commodity, which is why the best arms stayed off the mound for Woodland Hills and Butler Saturday night at Pullman Park.

"This game was going to go to the team that could hold it together the most," Woodland Hills coach Tim Banner admitted.

That was the Wolverines, who outlasted the Golden Tornado 14-9 on the latter's Senior Night.

Butler suffered an 8-5 section loss at North Hills earlier in the day, using two of its top pitchers — Matt Monnie and Zac Sessa — in that contest.

Butler didn't have head coach Dave Florie's services for either game, as he was sitting out a one-day suspension for being ejected from a game at North Allegheny earlier in the week.

"We thought he'd only have to sit out one game, but we found out it had to be the whole day," said assistant coach George Bradley, who ran the squad in both games Saturday.

The Tornado took a 5-2 lead into the fifth inning Saturday night, but had already lost catcher Nick Bole to injury. Bole took a knee to the head while lunging toward Woodland Hills runner Fran Rosato, who scored on a wild pitch.

Butler's fifth run scored in the fourth inning on a four-base error. Roman Bargo lofted a fly ball to deep center that Rosato lost in the lights. The ball hit Rosato in the head, temporarily dazing him. Bargo circled the bases as the ball rolled toward the warning track.

If that wasn't bizarre enough, check out the fifth inning.

The first 11 Wolverine batters reached base and scored. Butler used four pitchers in the inning, misplayed two ground balls, hit two batters and walked three others.

The first four Woodland Hills runs were scored before the Wolverines got a hit.

"That kind of thing can happen in high school ball," Bradley said. "I had (five-game winner) Joe Marak and Monnie available, but I wasn't going to use them in this game.

"It was rough, a long night ... but I wouldn't read much into this game."

Tornado pitchers hit four batters and walked six in the game. Woodland Hills began its fifth inning with a hit batsman, three successive walks and an infield throwing error.

"We wound up getting six hits in that inning," Banner said. "A few were blooped in. Everything was just going in our favor.

"Our pitcher tonight was our second baseman. He hadn't thrown an inning all year. Like Butler, like everybody at this point in the season, we're trying to save our best arms."

Ryan Alm threw 53 pitches in the first two innings for the Wolverines. He threw 122 for the night, 75 for strikes. He threw only 45 pitches in innings three through six.

"My best guy was warming up in the seventh if we needed him, but Ryan got it done," Banner said.

All seven of Butler's seniors — Tanner Master, Eric King, Evan Oswald, Monnie, Dustin Uhlman, David Schmidt and Marak — started and played the entire game.

"Seniors work hard and deserve to be honored like that," Bradley said.

Butler and Seneca Valley share 5-5 section records with two league games remaining. If the Tornado win at Seneca Valley Wednesday, Butler will be in the WPIAL playoffs.

Seneca Valley will qualify if it wins at North Allegheny today and against Butler.

"When it's May and you're still in the playoff hunt, that's what you want," Bradley said. "When you can control things yourself, it's even better."

Woodland Hills 011 (11)10 0 — 14 12 3Butler 211 101 3 — 9 10 2W: Ryan Alm (7 IP) 5K, 2 BB.

L: Bobby Swartwout (0 IP) 0 K, 3 BB.

Woodland Hills (11-5): Sean Samsda 1B RBI, Fran Rosato 2-1B 2-R, Brian Tougher RBI, Sean Henaghan RBI, Tim Connelly 2-1B RBI, Ryan Rocco 3B 3-R, Rob Nystrom 2-1B 3-RBI, Mike McNutt 1B RBI, Nick Shak 1B, Greg Harbison 2-1B 2-RBI 2-R

Butler (10-8): Eric King 2-1B RBI, Evan Oswald 1B, Cody Herald 1B, Dustin Uhlman 1B RBI, Tanner Master 1B RBI, Matt Monnie 2B 3-RBI, Joe Marak 1B, Nick Bole 1B, Roman Bargo 1B RBI 2-R

Today: Fox Chapel at Butler

Butler 000 300 2 — 5 10 1North Hills 401 300 x — 8 11 2W: Jesse Bauer (7 IP) 2 K, 2 BB.

L: Matt Monnie (3 IP) 2 K, 2 BB.

Butler (10-7, 5-5): Cody Herald 1B, Dustin Uhlman 1B, John Crummy 2-1B, Tyler Slepski 3B 1B, Eric King 2B, Tanner McCaw 2-2B, Nick Bole 1B

North Hills (8-6, 3-6): Scott Zubik 1B, Zach Gall 2-1B 2-R, Jesse Bauer 2-1B 2-R, Anthony Valeriano 2B, Nick Baker 1B, Taylor Schmidt 3-1B, Brandon Pritchard 1B