The Chattanooga Christian School baseball team kept their season alive on Thursday with a 12 inning 3-2 walk off walk to advance to the TSSAA Division II-AA quarterfinals.
Dominant pitching by seniors Noah Simerley (5 IP) and Aidan Swinney (7IP) ) combined to only allow 2 earned runs and three walks to go along with 9 strikeouts.
The Chargers scored first in the bottom of the first after Keegan Nieckula led off with a double, was bunted to third and scored on Owen Brown's RBI groundout. The score remained the same until the top of the 3rd when Ensworth pushed a run across on a sacrifice fly. From there on, it was a pitching duel between the Chargers duo of Simerley and Swinney and Ensworth's Carter Hullett.
The visiting Tigers finally pushed the go ahead run across in the top of the 8th, loading the bases with no one out, but only coming away with one run.
It did not look promising for the Chargers, but a one out single by freshman Bently Banks gave the Chargers life. With two outs, Banks stole second and set the stage for the biggest hit from the night from Holden Lyons. With Lyons and the Chargers' season down to its final strike, Lyons lined a 2-2 pitch to right field scoring Banks and sending the Chargers fans into a frenzy.
What followed was three more innings of scoreless baseball until the Chargers finally broke through in the bottom of the 12th. A leadoff infield single by Devin Dobson, a walk, a double steal by courtesy runner Brooks Wykoff and an intentional walk loaded the bases for the Chargers with no one out.
Following a strikeout, senior Drew Petty stepped to the plate and didn't have to get a hit walking on a 3-1 pitch to start the celebration for the Chargers.
The Chargers will play at Christ Presbyterian Academy in Nashville next week for the chance to head to the Spring Fling in Murfreesboro.
The win moves the Chargers to 21-15 on the season.