BUTLER TWP — Cade Negley smiled and sighed before talking about the wild swing of emotions for himself and the Butler baseball team in the seventh inning against Pine-Richland.

“It was crazy, that’s for sure,” Negley said.

In the top of the frame, Negley, a sophomore, came in to pitch in relief and hit three Rams’ batters with pitches — including two with the bases loaded — and gave up three runs as Pine-Richland broke a 2-2 tie.

In the bottom of the inning, though, Negley dug into the batters box with the bases loaded, two outs and the Golden Tornado trailing 5-4 and delivered a sharp two-run single on the first pitch he saw to give Butler a dramatic 6-5 home win that clinched a WPIAL Quad-A playoff spot.

“I come up in the on-deck circle and Conner Ollio is like, ‘Cade, you’re hitting a walk-off,’” Negley said, grinning. “I did it for him.”

Butler coach Todd Erdos praised Negley’s composure.

“He came around and went from the goat to the hero so to speak very quickly,” Erdos said. “He wasn’t happy with his performance on the mound. He didn’t have a feel for his breaking ball and hit two guys (with the bases loaded) and that was really tough. I know he was down on himself, but to come back and be able to clear his head and get the game-winning hit, that’s pretty awesome.”

The win was a much-needed one on several fronts.

Butler came in reeling, having lost four of its last five, and clinging to its playoff hopes. But the Tornado rallied to tie the game at 2-2 in the sixth and rallied again in the seventh for the win.

“It’s a huge confidence-booster,” Negley said. “Hopefully we come back Friday, put a win up against Seneca (Valley) and go into the playoffs on a good note.”

Ollio, just a freshman, got the start for the Golden Tornado in the pivotal game and was shaky early.

Ollio struggled with his command and gave up two first-inning runs. After walking the first two batters he faced in the second inning and wiggling out of that jam, he went exclusively to the stretch — forgoing the windup — in the third inning and retired Pine-Richland in order.

He was solid until he was lifted after six innings of work.

“He made that adjustment to go to the stretch on his own,” Erdos said. “He’s very mature for a freshman. He doesn’t look like a freshman. He doesn’t act like a freshman. To make that adjustment out there — a lot of guys wouldn’t do that.

“He really kept us in that game,” Erdos added. “He grinded it out with what he had and battled.”

Meanwhile Pine-Richland starter Tom Zbezinski had his own struggles, but escaped inning after inning.

The soft-tossing lefty, though, showed signs of fatigue in the seventh and didn’t get an out after giving up three consecutive hits.

Dante Seinko relieved Zbezinski, got two outs between two walks before the game-winning hit by Negley.

“(Zbezinski) got behind and got pitches up,” said Pine-Richland coach Kurt Wolfe. “They were struggling the whole game. They had (four) hits the whole game going into that final inning. What burns even more is we haven’t played well this year, but we played well today and had a chance at the playoffs.”

Pine-Richland (7-10, 2-7) needed to beat Butler and Moon and have Butler lose its final game against Seneca Valley to sneak into the postseason.

Now the Rams will try to at least go out on a winning note in their final game.

“One of our seniors said it the best: ‘We’re Pine-Richland. We’re supposed to win,’” Wolfe said. “It’s frustrating, and I feel bad for them.”

Butler is feeling pretty good — and relieved.

“It’s a huge win from the standpoint it gets us in the playoffs,” Erdos said. “We built some confidence that we can do this.”

Pine-Richland 200 000 3 — 5 6 0

Butler 100 001 4 — 6 9 2

Two out when winning run scored

W: Cade Negley 1IP (0K, 0BB). L: Dante Seinko 0.2IP (1K, 2BB).

Pine-Richland (7-10, 2-7): Zach Grguras 1B 2-RBI, Joey Professore 1B, Billy Lenhart 1B, Sam Gessner 1B 2-RBI, Jesse Meckler 1B RBI, Ryan Okuda 1B

Butler (8-8, 5-4): Nathan Kibbie 2-1B RBI, Garret Goslaw 1B, Dallas Hays 1B RBI, Luke Baranchak 1B RBI, Negley 2B 1B 3-RBI, Lake Sankey 1B, Conner Ollio 2B

Friday: Butler at Seneca Valley