Three years without a playoff berth had taken its toll on the Seneca Valley baseball team.

The drought had wore on them. Wiggled inside their heads. Pestered them.

Against rival Butler Monday night at Michelle Krill Field at Historic Pullman Park, the Raiders had a chance to end that three-year-long torment.

“Yeah, we knew we needed to win,” said senior shortstop Mark Trotta, chuckling. “We knew we haven't been in the playoffs for three years now.”

But now, it's over.

Seneca Valley (11-5, 4-4)rallied twice from one-run deficits and broke the game open late with a five-run outburst to down the Golden Tornado 7-4 to clinch a playoff spot out of the ultra-competitive WPIAL Section 1-6A

“It's nice to get this off our back,” Trotta said. “It means a lot. To not have the opportunity the last few years — it hurt.”

Now it feel good.

Seneca Valley had been close to making the playoffs the past three years,but fell just short each time.

Raiders' coach Eric Semega said this group has been different and they showed how different they were in the way they handled adversity against Butler Monday night.

“The thing that I haven't seen the last three years that I've seen with this group is it matters,” Semega said. “The win mattered. It wasn't about an individual accolade.”

Semega said his team was also able to control their emotions — something that hasn't always been easy in the past — especially in a wild fourth inning and amid several lead changes against the Golden Tornado..

“We try to stay within an emotional five-and-seven,” Semega said. “We didn't get below five. We were up at eight, nines and 10 almost and we had to bring our emotions down to an even keel and we were able to do that.”

Butler (6-11, 4-6) struck first in the bottom of the first. Kyle Weitzel led off with a walk and scored on a double by Colby Anderson.

Anderson, meanwhile was cruising on the mound. He got three first-pitch outs and retired seven of the first eighth batters he faced.

But he did run into trouble in the top of the third after a strikeout. Conor Carney and Mark Trotta both walked and later scored on hits by Cameron Vozel and Austin Shirley for a 2-1 Seneca Valley lead.

Anderson got in trouble again in the top of the fourth but got out if it.

Seneca Valley loaded the bases with one out, but Anderson got a force out at the plate and a strikeout to escape.

He was chased in the sixth after giving up back-to-back hits.

“The thing that kind of hurt Colby a little bit was the pressure that he had to do more,” said Butler coach Cody Herald. “Colby is such a competitor when he is on that mound, he wants to do anything he can to get us a win.”

It looked like Anderson was going to pick up a W after Butler seized the lead in the bottom of the fourth in a game that went back and forth.

David Leslie walked and Mattix Clement slapped a single to left to set up a two-run double by No. 9 hitter Cooper Baxter for a 3-2 Butler lead.

It stayed that way until the top of the sixth when Seneca Valley broke the game open.

The Raiders scored five in the frame, taking advantage of three Butler errors. Gabe Lawson had a RBI triple to begin the uprising.

Michael Morrone got the win in relief, going 1 2/3 innings. Cory Greiner got the save after coming in following singles by Simon Brown and JR Herold to start the bottom of the seventh.

Fittingly it was Trotta who gobbled up a ground ball and made a perfect throw to end the game. Trotta made several stellar plays at shortstop, two that saved runs.

“Our strength this season has been pitching and defense,” Semega said. “We have a team ERA of 1.80, which is phenomenal.”

Butler already clinched a playoff spot, but Herald was dismayed by the one bad inning.

“It's OK to lose when you flat out get beat by a team,” Herald said. “But we beat ourselves. Does this mean we aren't going to the playoffs? No. But at the same time this game should have been a game where we're getting ready to go to the playoffs. Instead, we regressed.”

Seneca Valley 002 005 0 — 7 6 0

Butler 100 200 1 — 4 8 4

W: Michael Morrone 1.2IP (1K, 1BB). L: Colby Anderson 5IP (5K, 3BB).

Seneca Valley (11-5, 4-4): Cameron Vozel 1B RBI, Austin Shirley 1B RBI, Josh McClean 1B 2B, Drew Robertson 1B, Gabe Lawson 3B RBI

Butler (6-11, 4-6): Kyle Weitzel 1B, Anderson 2B, Nathan Stutz 3B, Simon Brown 1B, JR Herold 1B, Mattix Clement 1B, Zach Slomers 1B, Cooper Baxter 2B 2-RBI

Tuesday: Penn-Trafford at Seneca Valley

Wednesday: Butler at Moon