Norway defeated top-seeded Kingsford 9-2 Thursday night to force Friday’s deciding game.

A three-run top half of the second inning powered Norway to the win, with No. 9 hitter Dylan Erickson cracking a two-out two-run single. The other Norway RBI in the inning came in way of a bunt off the bat of second baseman Jaxson Walker, with the hosts taking a 3-1 lead at that point.

“Tonight was a heck of a game, Kingsford is a great team,” said Norway head coach Scott Sternhagen. “I am happy for the kids and everyone who supported us this season.”

Kingsford got on the scoreboard first, plating a run in the bottom half of the opening inning on an RBI groundout by starting pitcher Logan McCoy, plating lead-off hitter Luke Rice who, along with Dawson Hood, had reached base on Norway errors.

Norway's Dylan Erickson (20) takes off from second base as Kingsford shortstop Luke Rice (7) looks on.

Kingsford added another run in the bottom half of inning No. 3 on an RBI single by Promise Setner. Norway turned around in the top of the fourth inning and got a run back, taking a 4-2 lead as Erickson blasted a double with one out, and later scored on Tucker Buchanan’s single.

Kingsford again closed Norway’s lead to one run in the bottom half of inning No. 5. Connor Chrisman blasted an RBI double to bring the score to 4-3.

“We coached the kids hard to get them to believe that we were still in this and had a chance, despite last night (Thursday night),” said Kingsford head coach Ed McCoy. “The boys responded well, but didn’t score runs a couple of opportunities we had to do so.”

Buchanan was Norway’s starting pitcher, fanning three, walking two and allowing three hits. Landon DeBakker relieved Buchanan in the fifth inning with two outs and fanned the first batter he faced.

DeBakker pitched the bottom of the sixth inning, throwing to four batters and allowing only one hit, to earn the save for Norway.

“Tucker (Buchanan) pitched a an efficient game for us, all the way through to his pitch count limit. And DeBakker closed things down for us,” said coach Sternhagen. ” Pretty much everyone came through with us at different times tonight, it was great.”

Tyler Sternhagen belted a two-out RBI triple in the top half of the sixth inning to add an insurance run for Norway.

McCoy pitched very well for Kingsford, fanning seven, while giving up a half-dozen hits and not allowing a walk. He was relieved by Rice, who fanned four batters, while allowing one walk and one hit.

“McCoy pitched tremendous for them, he was really in a zone tonight,” coach Sternhagen added.

Norway moves on to play in the state tournament, which will be held in its entirety at Marion Park. As the District 10 winner, Norway will take on the winner of District 4 at 1:30 p.m. Friday, which is Norway’s first of three games in the pool play portion of the tournament.

Norway will play the District 2 champion on July 24 at 11 a.m. and their final game in pool play will be July 25 at 6:30 p.m. versus the District 12 winner.

Once pool play is complete, two teams from each of the four pools will advance into the single elimination championship portion of the tournament. The four quarterfinal games will be held on July 26, the two semifinal games on July 27 and the state title games is scheduled for the afternoon of Wednesday, July 28.

A full list of the 16 qualifiers and a schedule for the three days of pool play will be published once available.

“Tonight was a well played ball game by both teams,” coach McCoy said. “We didn’t quite make a couple plays on some hard hit balls. Hats off to Norway and I hope they do well in the state tournament.”

Norway 0 3 0 1 0 1 — 5/7/7

Kingsford 1 0 1 0 1 0 — 3/4/2