Braden Grossman will remember his third-inning single Tuesday night at Michelle Krill Field at Historic Pullman Park for a while.

The Karns City catcher — one of four Gremlin seniors honored before the game — broke a scoreless tie with a two-out, two-run single up the middle, giving the Gremlins a lead they never lost in a 6-2 baseball victory over Brockway.

“I’d been struggling at the plate, so that hit meant a lot to me,” Grossman admitted. “Our coaches have been stressing to put the bat on the ball.

“Strikeouts have been a problem for us. We need to cut down on those.”

They did on this night, fanning only three times. Karns City (12-6) won for the fifth time in six games.

“We’re playing pretty good ball right now,” KC coach Josh Smith said. “Our defense has been good and we’re getting some two-out hits. Great teams get two-out RBI hits and Braden gave us a big one tonight.”

Mason Sherwin gave the Gremlins a big effort on the mound. The sophomore right-hander scattered five hits in 6.2 innings, being denied a complete game only on pitch count. He was nicked for two runs on no hits in the sixth while protecting a narrow lead throughout.

With two outs in the KC fourth, Jacob Callihan beat out an infield single and Hobie Bartoe tripled to left, increasing the Karns City lead to 3-0.

Sherwin allowed consecutive singles to Chad Young and Gage Park to begin the Brockway fifth before escaping damage by sandwiching an infield pop-up with two strikeouts.

“Mason pitches bigger than he looks,” Smith said. “He’s not an emotional kid. He’s like, gimme the ball and let’s go. I’ll get it done. He’s pitched a lot of big games for us this year.”

Sherwin labored in the sixth inning, throwing 21 pitches and walking two batters. He fielded a sacrifice bunt, hesitated before throwing to first and failed to get the out, further complicating the inning.

The Rovers (4-12) wound up pushing two runs across to pull within 3-2. The Gremlins responded by scoring three times in the bottom of the inning. Jacob Jones drilled a two-run triple to left and scored on Michael Neff’s infield out.

Brockway committed four errors in the game, including two in that three-run sixth.

“They were able to manufacture some runs around our errors,” Brockway coach Matt Melillo said. “That’s the way it’s been going for us. This has been a building year.”

Brockway only has two seniors on its roster. One of them — left-hander Ezra Swanson — was the losing pitcher.

Sherwin threw eight of his nine pitches in the seventh for strikes before having to be removed from the mound.

“I told Mason to just throw strikes in that last inning,” Grossman said. “He’s pretty calm out there. It’s hard to rattle him.”

Grossman, Neff, Mallick Metcalfe and Mitchell Waldroup were the KC seniors honored before the game. While Brockway ended its season Tuesday, KC closes the regular season Wednesday against Union/A-C Valley at Pullman Park.

“That will be an emotional night for all of us,” Smith said. “We don’t just coach these kids, we know them very well. All four seniors got to play the entire game tonight and we got the win.

“This was a special atmosphere for them.”

Brockway 000 002 0 — 2 5 4

Karns City 002 103 x — 6 11 2

WP: Mason Sherwin 6.2IP (5so, 3bb). LP: Ezra Swanson 5.1P (2so, 2bb).

Brockway (4-12): Ezra Swanson 1B, Andrew Brubaker 1B, Matthew Brubaker RBI, Chad Young 1B, Gage Park 1B, Logan Faith 1B.

Karns City (12-6): Hobie Bartoe 3B 1B RBI 2-R, Jacob Jones 1B 3B 2-RBI 2-R, Mallick Metcalfe 1B, Michael Neff 1B RBI, Braden Grossman 2-1B 2-RBI, Koen Williams 1B, Jacob Callihan 2-1B 2-R.

Wednesday: Union/A-C Valley vs. Karns City, 5:30 p.m., Pullman Park