Brett Young ripped the game-winner (Monte Dutton photos).

That moon rising above left-center field wasn’t a bad one at Clinton High School. The Red Devils rose with it in a 7-6 Class 3A playoff baseball victory over Wren on Thursday evening.

The ecstatic final moment occurred with two out in the bottom of the seventh inning, with runners on second and third, on a 1-1 count, at which point right fielder Brett Young launched a tracer into the left-center field gap that would have gone for extra bases if more than one had been needed. That was pinch-runner Tanner Kyko’s. The game won, he reversed field and joined the spontaneous acrobatics going on near third base.

“The time before I got beat by a fastball that jammed me,” Young said. “I knew him (Wren’s Evan Allen) coming back up. I thought, he has a fastball. He has a good slider, too. I knew I had to sit back and trust my hands and drive the ball.”

It was epic in many ways, a game as full as the moon.

After three innings, the Hurricanes of Piedmont led, 6-0. The Red Devils botched a rundown. Three times bad throws cost Clinton attempts to retire the lead Wren runner.

“We counted up, in the first four innings, what we call 14 ‘extra bases.’ That’s not like us,” Clinton head coach Sean McCarthy said. “We’ve been a very clean defensive team. … We just gave them too many extra bases.”

Starter Wil Stewart didn’t make it through two innings but won the game. That’s because he gave up four runs in the first 1-2/3 innings and none in the last one. Stewart trotted over to first, watched Caleb Taylor and Carson Glenn succeed him, then returned to the hill to nail it down.

In the major leagues, they keep stats for “holds.” Glenn had a death grip, pitching in and out of trouble but going 2-2/3 innings and allowing two hits and two walks while striking out three.

The first five spots in the Clinton batting order were a combined 3-12. The last four slots were 9-19.

Left fielder Justin Copeland was 4-4 but did not drive in a run. He scored two and ripped a double. Second baseman Bryce Young, not to be confused with Brett or Luke or the Panthers’ first draft choice, went 2-3 with a double.

Allen took the loss in relief of starter Judd Ellison, who toiled for five innings. Ellison didn’t walk anyone and struck out five but also gave up nine hits and five runs (four earned). Wren (15-8) next plays Pendleton on Saturday, while the Red Devils wait for the winner with a loss to spare on Monday.

Harrison Moore, who pinch-hit for Luke Young, singled, drove in two runs and scored on Zach Fortman’s fly ball, which wound up being an inning-ending double play. Moore was one of two players in the game – Wren’s Hayden Porter was the other – who drove in two runs.

Trailing 6-0 before anyone even noticed the aforementioned full moon, the Devils put their wicked ways behind them and went to work. They served notice of repentance with four scores in the fourth, then added single tallies in each remaining frame.

Put another way, Clinton (20-3) was Wren’s trooper in the rear-view mirror.

“We’re a team that’s pretty gritty,” said McCarthy. “We put some pressure on them, and made them throw a lot of pitches, and benefited.”

It was one hell of a chase.