One out away from a 3-2 win over Birches, Nazareth began to unravel and lost Game Three in nine innings.
Had you told Jason Brown before the NorCo Legion championship series began Tuesday that his Nazareth team would ultimately lose to Birches, he would have been okay with it.
Nazareth had gone all in for a semifinal series win over Wanderers to qualify for this weekend's Region 2 tournament. Pitching was slim and Birches was stacked with veterans.
Then his team took a roller coaster ride through the championship series.
Birches took Game One 4-2 in eight innings and Nazareth won Game Two 13-1 behind a rookie's stellar pitching performance.
And then, in Thursday night's winner-take-all Game Three, Nazareth was one out away from winning it all. That's where the roller coaster began to drop.
Birches tied it 3-3 with two outs in the seventh, then scored three in the ninth to win the NorCo Legion championship 6-3 at Nazareth Boro Park.
"It would have been easier to come out and slop one up 8-0 and to say, 'Okay, well we just didn't have it,'" Brown said. "And to be honest with you, I expected the first two games to possibly be like that. I didn't expect to be in the game or even win a game in the first two games.
"But we have a lot of fighters on this team. They were hungry for this."
Nazareth will be back in action 4 p.m. Saturday against Hatfield to kick off the Region 2 tournament at Quakertown. In the meantime, they'll try to brush off the sting from Thursday's loss.
Rookie pitches like veteran as Nazareth evens series
It was all looking up for Nazareth through six innings. Kevin Wagner had executed a perfect squeeze bunt -- Nazareth's second in as many nights -- for the 3-1 lead in the fourth inning. Birches got one run back in the fifth, but trailed 3-2 headed to the seventh.
Cade Stoneback had turned in six strong innings for Nazareth and struck out the first batter he faced in the seventh. After a single and an error, Stoneback got a fly ball for the second out.
With runners on first and second, leadoff man Dakota George came to the plate and slapped a first-pitch single into right field. Kyle Cavanaugh sprinted from second base and just beat the tag at home plate to tie the game.
"We knew, in that situation, (George) was going to be sitting first-pitch fastball and he was," Brown said. "That's why we threw him a breaking ball. He was out on his front foot, he just got enough of the bat on it to push it into right field. The right fielder (Noah McMullen) made a perfect throw. Literally, he was a step away.
"If (Cavanaugh) was a little bit slower or something like that, we nail the guy at the plate and we're all celebrating right here. That's baseball. What are you going to do about it?"
Stoneback got out of the inning with the game still tied, but Nazareth's bats went quiet from there against Birches ace Travis Van Houten, who came on in the seventh for a relief appearance. Against him, Nazareth mustered just two base runners -- both by walks.
"He's a veteran," Brown said. "He's arguably one of the two best pitchers in this league."
In the ninth, the Nazareth defense began to unravel.
Brent Beck delivered the winning blow with a two-run triple to the right field fence and Birches added another run on another error.
Nazareth finished the game with a season-high seven errors. Only two of Stoneback's six runs allowed were earned.
"I don't know what the reason was for that," Brown said. "I didn't feel like guys were tight tonight. But I can't get in the minds of all 17-year olds. Maybe in their mind they were, especially in a one-run game close. If that's the case, then that's fine. You expect that from young guys. I told them this is a learning tool."
The missed chances that would have seemed minor in a win were magnified after the loss.
Nazareth would have had the bases loaded with two outs in the first if not for a runner getting thrown out at home. They would have had bases loaded with one out in the second if not for running into a double play on the base paths. And in the sixth inning, they had runners on the corners with one out and didn't score.
"Last night we had fundamentals galore," Brown said. "Tonight, we played well early. We squeezed home a run, we got some bunts down, but we didn't do enough off (starting pitcher Nate Coursey) like we should have."
Brown said he hopes it all serves as motivation moving forward for the young Nazareth squad, but first, there's the Region 2 tournament to play.
"They were hungry for the championship," Brown said. "... Hey, we just fell a little bit short. We have to come back from that. We only have one day off, so we gotta have short memories."
Birches -- 100 010 103 -- 6 10 1
Nazareth -- 200 100 000 -- 3 10 7
2B -- Cam Farmer (N). 3B -- Brent Beck (B). RBI -- Beck 3, Luke Hohenstein, Dakota George, Marshall Hanyon (B); Cade Stoneback, Kevin Ryan, Kevin Wagner.
Nate Coursey, Travis Van Houten (7) and Hanyon. Stoneback, Billy Dougherty (9) and Jake Trenberth. W -- Van Houten. L -- Stoneback. SO-BB -- Coursey 2-2, Van Houten 4-2; Stoneback 3-2, Dougherty 1-0.
Greg Joyce may be reached at gjoyce@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @GJoyce9. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.