STRATTANVILLE — For five innings, Matt Yough was masterful.

For five innings, the Karns City baseball team looked very much like the team that rolled to a District 9 Class AA championship.

For five innings, the Gremlins simply looked unbeatable.

Then the sixth inning came. And with it, disaster.

District 10 runner-up Northwestern scored six runs in the sixth inning, added another in the seventh and held on for a 7-6 win over Karns City in the first round of the PIAA Class AA playoffs at Clarion-Limestone High School Monday afternoon.

Yough carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning with a 3-0 lead, but Northwestern strung together four hits and a walk to tie the score at 3-3 and chase him from the game.

“He was getting a little tired and it was the second time through the lineup,” said Karns City coach Randy Collins of Yough. “That's how baseball goes. You get tired, you leave the ball up.”

Tyler Kepple relieved Yough and a bunt hit and a throwing error allowed the Wildcats to take a 5-3 lead.

A single by Evan Bird made it a 6-3 game.

“One batter too long,” Collins lamented. “If Kep comes in, maybe it's different results. Maybe they don't get that big hit over the head. But that's baseball.”

That big hit was a double by Bird that tied the game and sent Yough to shortstop.

Northwestern coach John Light was just happy his team was able to string some hits together after coming up empty for five innings.

“I've been in this game a long time and sometimes a pitcher just gets ya. Sometimes you get snake-bit,” Light said. “We hit the ball hard a few times against him, but right at people. I'm just glad they started falling in because he did a nice job against us.”

Karns City jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second on a RBI double by Tyler Dunn and a RBI triple by Wyatt Everetts.

The Gremlins, though, had two runners thrown out at the plate in the frame.

“They came back to get us,” Collins said. “All season, we've been aggressive. It's a tough loss to swallow.”

Northwestern took advantage of two more Karns City errors in the seventh inning to add what turned out to be a very important run to make it 7-3.

“They threw the ball around a little bit,” Light said. “But I guess that's a baseball, right? Sometimes you make a mistake at the worst time.”

Light almost saw that come true from his team.

The Wildcats committed four errors in the seventh inning that led to three Karns City runs, but relief pitcher Jay Clinger got out of the jam with the winning-run at the plate to send Northwestern to the next round.

Clinger picked up the win.

Collins was happy his team went down fighting.

“They haven't quit on me in four years,” Collins said. “I told them (before the seventh inning) 'don't do it on me now.' And they didn't. That's the way you want to go out, obviously not to lose ... but they came back and fought and didn't give up.”

The Karns City seniors leave with three district titles and 50-plus wins.

“I just thanked them for all they have done,” an emotional Collins said. “For the role models they were for the team, the underclassmen, even my own kids. They grew up with these guys, too. They were a great example for us.”

Northwestern 000 006 1 — 7 8 5

Karns City 020 100 3 — 6 9 4

W: Jay Clinger 3IP (4K, 1BB). L: Matt Yough 5.1IP (4K, 3BB).

Northwestern (14-5): Dylan Bird 2-1B, Griffin Hiles 2B RBI, Nate Noe 2B 2-RBI, Pate Buckoski 1B RBI, Evan Bird 1B RBI, Greg DePalma 2-1B

Karns City (14-3): Tyler Kepple 1B, Yough 2B 1B, Zach Moore 1B 2-RBI, Mike Riley 1B, Alessandro Marotto 2-1B, Tyler Dunn 2B RBI, Wyatt Everetts 3B 2-RBI