KARNS CITY — Talk about theatre.

The seventh inning of Karns City’s 7-6 softball win over Keystone Wednesday night at Diehl Stadium would have made an excellent movie scene.

The Gremlins (3-1) were one out away from wrapping up a 6-2 victory. But with two outs and a runner on first, Rylie Corrigan doubled down the left field line. That brought Panther slugger Natalie Bowser to the plate.

Bowser was the Pennsylvania High School Softball Player of the Year last season, hitting over .700 with 14 home runs. She hit two solo homers earlier in this game. Karns City coach Mike Stitt decided to intentionally walk her in the seventh to load the bases.

“As soon as I did that, I thought to myself, ‘this next girl is going to hit a grand slam,’” Stitt said.

Guess what.

Leah Exley’s drive to deep center barely got over center fielder Rossi McMillen’s head and over the fence, knotting the game at 6.

“I don’t think they should have walked (Bowser) in that situation, but I’m not surprised they did,” Keystone coach John Stiglitz said. “Starting around the second half of last season, teams have been intentionally walking her a lot.”

Karns City came to the plate in the bottom of the seventh with Bowser on the mound for Keystone. Marra Patton reached on an infield error to open the frame, freshman Madison Gibson running for her at first base. Ava Fox laid down a sacrifice bunt and the ball was thrown wildly to first, placing runners at second and third with no one out.

With a steady rain falling, McMillen prepared to come to the plate.

Then the stadium lights went out.

Rain continued to fall — harder at times — as the game was delayed 30 minutes. The lights had to cool down before they would reboot.

“We’ve had no luck with rain this year,” Stiglitz said. “This is our first game because the rest of them have been rained out ... Now this happens.”

The lights eventually came back on. McMillen stepped up to the plate as rain continued to fall. She fell behind in the count 0-2 before hitting a tapper back to the mound.

Bowser threw to third, but Gibson retreated to the bag safely. Fox was caught between second and third. As the Panthers made a play on her, Gibson scooted home with the winning run.

All seven Karns City runs were unearned on the night as the Panthers committed five errors. The Gremlins played errorless ball.

“We pride ourselves on putting the ball in play and forcing the other team to make plays on us,” Stitt said. “We’ve got seven seniors on this team and they know how to take advantage of mistakes.”

“First-game jitters,” Stiglitz said of the errors. “This is our first game. It’s Karns City’s fourth. That makes a difference.”

McMillen did not start the game for Karns City as she arrived late, coming from a college speech class.

“I wasn’t expecting anything like this,” McMillen said of the game’s ending. “My bat was a bit slippery up there. I hit the ball off the inside of my bat. Luckily, it was enough to get the run home.”

Patton was the winning pitcher for KC, striking out six while pitching the final four innings. Ally Walker pitched the first three innings.

“Our pitchers did what they had to do tonight,” Stitt said. “Keystone is a very good team. They battled hard to come back on us in the seventh. I give them credit for that.”

Walker had two singles and an RBI, Patton as double, single and RBI to key Karns City’s eight-hit attack. Jess Dunn and Walker had run-scoring singles, Patton an RBI double during a four-run Gremlin third inning. Dunn’s two-out fly ball was dropped in the outfield, allowing two runs to cross the plate in the fourth.

“Hit the ball and good things can happen,” McMillen said.

Keystone1000104 — 655

Karns City 0042001 — 780

W: Marra Patton 4IP (6K, 2BB). L: Natalie Bowser 1IP (1K, 2BB)

Keystone (0-1): Rylie Corrigan 2B, Natalie Bowser 2-HR 2-RBI 3-R, Leah Exley HR 4-RBI, Bella Black 1B

Karns City (3-1): Zoe King 1B, Jess Dunn 1B RBI, Ashley Fox RBI, Ally Walker 2-1B RBI, Marra Patton 2B 1B RBI, Sarra Patton 1B 2-R, Jada Polechinski 2B

Friday: Karns City at Union