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North Penn-Mansfield’s Carl Dinger broke a 4-4 tie in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Tigers a 5-4 win over rival Wellsboro in the first round of District IV AA baseball playoffs on Tuesday, May 24.

With the game tied at 4-4 heading into the bottom of the seventh, Dinger singled and Levi Adams was hit by a pitch to move Dinger over to second before Dinger stole third to put runners on the corners. A throwing error to third allowed Dinger to score at the next at bat, giving the Tigers the walk-off win.

Earlier in the game, both Wellsboro and North Penn-Mansfield scored 4 runs in the first inning. The Hornets started with runs by Nick Tremper, Joe Allen, Cameron Tennis and James Mundy in the top half of the inning, then the Tigers followed with runs by Brendan Hill, Dylan Wesneski, Carl Dinger and Levi Adams to tie it up.

The Tigers had a chance in the fifth inning to break the tie when Dylan Williamson singled to center field with Dinger on base. Dinger rounded third, but forgot to touch the bag on his way to home plate. Tremper noticed the base running error and had Johnny Rowland throw to third to get the out before pitching to the next batter.

“You have to give credit to Mansfield,” said Wellsboro head coach Philip Prough. “They came back. They could’ve packed it up right there in the first inning and they didn’t so you have to give credit to them.

“We struggled the first inning, just as they (Mansfield) did,” continued Prough. “We brought in Johnny and he settled things down and did a very good job for us. They brought in Hillson and he did a really good job for them to get them to J.P. There were multiple chances for both teams to put more runs on the board and not for it to get to the seventh inning. Neither team executed and it came down to that one last play.”

For Mansfield head coach Matt Perry, the win was all about patience after trailing 4-0 early on.

“It’s a long game and the guys have battled back all the time,” Perry said. “It’s one pitch at a time, one out at a time, one inning at a time. We got lucky there at the end. A guy swiped an extra base and they threw the ball into left field and we got lucky.”

The win keeps the Tigers’ season alive as they advance to the District IV AA semi-finals to take on No. 1 seed Loyalsock on Thursday, May 26 in Williamsport at Bowman Field.

The loss ends the Hornets’ season at 12-9.