LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — Baseball is a lot like life, as you are bound to have some great days mixed with a few sad ones.

On Wednesday, May 24, the fourth-seeded Bears of Tri-Valley (7-6 overall, 0-3 league), had a good day as they knocked off the top-ranked Sullivan West Bulldogs (12-6 overall, 3-0 league) in a game that came alive for the home team in the final frame.

By the top of the sixth inning, the Bears had posted a three-run lead, and appeared to be on the verge of blanking the Dawgs.

In the seventh, the Bulldogs staged a late game surge, picking up a couple of runs to electrify the home stand crowd.

But it was a case of “too little, too late,” as Tri-Valley’s winning pitcher Chase Botsford shut down the rally, stranding two Sullivan West runners on base, ending the playoff season for the Bulldogs and advancing his team to the championships.

Things started looking pretty good for Sullivan West as Collin Hauschild tripled in the first inning, but then the home-team bats decided it was a fine time for a snooze.

The game between the Battling Bears and the Dueling Dawgs was scoreless until the top of the fourth, when Tri-Valley’s Brauke Hunt led off with a single and then moved to second on a fielder’s choice.

The next batter was hit by a pitch. Botsford walked and, with two outs and the bases loaded, another swatter got nicked and Hunt scored, putting the Bears up 1-0.

In the fifth, Cody Shamro singled, and then crossed the plate on an RBI single by Michael Schulte, giving Tri-Valley a 2-0 lead.

Botsford helped his own cause in the sixth frame, as he led off with a single, moved to second on a wild pitch and then the hot corner on a fielder’s choice. Johnathan Schmidt walked, setting up a first-and-third situation, followed by a double steal that scored Botsford to put the Bears in the driver’s seat 3-0 in what looked like a possible shutout.

In the bottom of the seventh, Sullivan West’s bats came alive as Alex Schwalb and Collin Hauschild posted doubles and later scored.

But the seventh frame surge stalled, and that was all she wrote.

“We played great defense, and we got timely hitting, which is what we needed,” said Botsford, the Bears’ ace pitcher of the game.

Noting they had a much-curtailed regular season due to crappy weather (like 12 games), the 17-year-old junior said, “We started getting better since the beginning.”

John Rusin, coach of the Battling Bears, said his hurler “did a great job of keeping them off balance,” adding, ”Sullivan West has a tough lineup… those guys hit, and are not an easy task… they’re number one for a reason.”

“We have a nice group of kids who are hungry, they come to practice every day, really work hard and want to learn.”

Dueling Dawgs coach Bill Kirk said that while his team “had runners in scoring position in just about every inning, we just couldn’t get the hits… my hats off to Chase; he did a great job today.”

His take of the 2017 season of swats?

“We started off a little slow, picked things up and had a nice winning streak,” replied Kirk.

“You couldn’t ask for a better bunch of boys… it’s sad to see it end like this.”