Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Girard’s Pierson Ginocchi, third from left, is swarmed by his teammates after walking off Mineral Ridge on Friday at Liberty Park.

GIRARD — On senior day, Girard’s seniors helped put the Indians in position for a memorable finish. But it was a sophomore that stole the show on Friday night.

After trailing heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, Girard rallied to tie the game and sophomore Pierson Ginocchi’s walk-off single lifted the Indians to a 5-4 victory over Mineral Ridge at Liberty Park.

“Our guys kept battling and didn’t give up,” Girard coach Aaron Alejars said. “I believed in our seniors, and was happy for them on senior night. We had a couple seniors that got the inning started, [Kaiden Clare], Jaden Royal — big triple with two outs there. He’s had a great career, and just happy for him to get that there. So it’s all on those guys there that have the belief and that never-give-up mentality that we preach.”

Girard (10-14) scored two early runs in the first inning that gave them an edge. But then Rams starter Preston Kline started to settle in.

He kept the Indians off the scoreboard for three innings after that, until Girard finally pulled one back in the fifth inning on an RBI double by Bobby Levonyak.

Heading into the bottom of the seventh, the Indians trailed 4-3. Kline struck out the side in the bottom of the sixth, and continued that into the seventh with back-to-back strikeouts that put Mineral Ridge (12-9) just one out away from victory.

However, Royal blasted a triple into right field, beating the throw to third base by a hair to put the tying run in scoring position. Clare then followed with a base hit to score Royal and put the winning run on first.

“I think the difference was the Royal kid, busting his butt on that play to get to third and put them in position to tie the game,” Mineral Ridge coach Anthony Ragozine said. “They settled in a little bit, and they put the ball in play. That’s ultimately what it came down to.”

That’s when Ragozine went to his bullpen for the last out. He finished with 11 strikeouts and four walks in 6 2/3 innings.

“His pitch count was up, so that was going to be his final batter, no matter what,” Ragozine said. “We had a plan that we were going to change him, and we did. It just didn’t work out the way that you hope, but that’s baseball.”

Christian Dunlap came into the game for the Rams and walked Levonyak in his first batter faced. That set the stage for Ginocchi, who belted a grounder out of the infield to right-centerfield, scoring Clare for the walk-off winner.

“We were getting the bullpen ready. But I kind of told the guys, I don’t think we’re going to need it here,” Alejars said. “I got confidence these guys are going to put the bat on the ball, and we’re going to earn it there and come through with the ‘dub’ in seven innings. Again, happy for these guys. Tip your hat to that pitcher [Kline], though. He’s a heck of a kid for just a sophomore.”

The middle of the order proved to be the difference for the Indians, as Royal, Levonyak and Ginocchi each finished with two of Girard’s seven hits.

After Girard’s two early runs, Mineral Ridge pulled one back in the third inning on an RBI single by Jackson Geddes. Then, the Rams pulled ahead in the top of the fourth on back-to-back RBI hits from Nick Anderson and Kline. Xavier Klamer added an additional insurance run with a solo homer that eked inside the left-field pole to give Mineral Ridge a 4-2 advantage.

Camron Herrick went the distance on the mound for Girard, finishing with 12 strikeouts and two walks. He gave up those runs in the middle innings, but did what he needed to do to shut the Rams down in the sixth and seventh innings.

Both teams are finishing out the regular season with some additional games to prepare for the playoffs, which begin next week.

No. 19 seed Girard will play at LaBrae today and at home against Champion on Tuesday, before hosting No. 20 seed Crestwood on Friday in a Division V, Northeast 4, sectional matchup.

Ninth-seeded Mineral Ridge is set to play Lakeview at home on Tuesday and will host No. 11 seed Ashtabula St. John on Friday in a Division VI, Northeast 4, sectional.

“A win like that definitely helps because you get momentum, confidence and belief, which you need, because when we had our nice little run last year, three of our four tournament games came down to one-run games,” Alejars said. “So we’ve been preaching how little things matter, and it’s going to come up in a game against a good pitcher and a good team like that. So every little thing matters and confidence helps.”