BUTLER TWP — Christian Manny thrust his arms skyward as the baseball rocketed off his bat and into center field. Josh Friel was mobbed by his teammates at the plate as hats and helmets flew into the muggy air.

The one-out, walk-off hit capped off a three-run rally in the bottom of the seventh inning for Butler City in a 6-5 win over East Butler in the Legion championship game at Highfield Park Saturday afternoon.

Butler City cruised through the tournament undefeated, including a win over East Butler earlier in the playoffs. Butler City, though, didn't want to lose this game and face a winner-take-all contest at Speed-O Field later this week.

“You couldn't have drawn it up any better,” said Butler City manager Jerry Piroch. “What a ballgame. My guys, when we were going into the bottom of the seventh, there was no coaching at all involved. They knew everything they were doing. I'm a spectator here.”

Butler City (16-6) certainly had the experience with nine 19-year-old players on the roster. Friel, who got the win on the mound, was one of them.

Friel struck out seven and gave up five runs — only three earned — in seven innings. But the right-hander and Butler City entered the bottom of the seventh inning trailing East Butler 5-3.

Shae Stobert reached on an error to lead off the frame and moved to third on a double by Alex Ziegler. Tim Butler followed with an RBI groundout to cut the lead to 5-4 before Friel stepped up and smashed a triple over the head of East Butler center fielder Dustin Kepple to tie the game at 5-5.

“I had tons of confidence in all of these guys,” Friel said. “This whole playoffs we've been hitting the ball and the top of the order has been crushing the ball. Coming into this game, we all said, 'We're not going to play two. We're going to finish this in one.' And we did it.”

Friel bailed himself out with his pitching performance and timely triple. His throwing error on a comebacker with two outs in the top of the fifth inning gave East Butler a 4-3 lead.

“I've done that a couple of times now,” Friel said. “I knew I had to keep my composure. It was just one error and I had faith in these guys.”

Piroch has had faith in Friel for years.

“I started with him when he was 15 years old,” Piroch said. “I begged him. I said, 'Josh, stay with me. Stay with me.' And he never varied. Tonight when he had that lob throw to first, that gave them the go-ahead run and all the momentum. But I can't say enough about Josh. Wow. What a competitor.”

Friel was 2-for-3 at the plate, Manny was 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI and Spencer Murray also had a triple for Butler City against East Butler pitcher Adam Harbison.

Butler City hadn't played since last Saturday. East Butler (19-5) had to win a pair of games this week to get a shot at BC.

“No shame for anybody on that team,” Piroch said of East Butler. “We hammered practice for three hours the other night. We went down to (Butler County Community College) and we left it all down there.”

East Butler, last year's champion, had to win three straight loser's bracket games to get to the title clash with Butler City.

“We're used to the losers' bracket. It seems East Butler always has to fight back through. We did it last year, too,” said East Butler manager Steve Armahizer. “They got all the way through to the championship game, but unfortunately, we didn't finish it.

“I'm really proud of the boys,” he added. “We played a committee. We played as a whole team. It was nice to see we all came out and battled together.”

East Butler 101 110 1 — 5 8 2

Butler City 111 000 3 — 6 9 3

One out when winning run scored

W: Josh Friel 7IP (7K, 3BB). L: Adam Harbison 6.1IP (2K, 3BB).

East Butler (19-5): Dustin Kepple 2-1B RBI, Tanner Gilliland 2B, Jake Stoner RBI, Ryan McCrea 1B, Tyler Crawford 2-1B RBI, Harbison 2-1B RBI

Butler City (16-6): Spencer Murray 3B, Alex Ziegler 2B, Tim Butler 1B 2-RBI, Friel 1B 3B RBI, Jordan Winters 2B, Christian Manny 3-1B 2-RBI