NORTH ROBINSON — Sometimes, conventional wisdom needs to be thrown out the window.

No one knows that more than Colonel Crawford coach Dan Gorbett.

With the game on the line, Gorbett decided against intentionally walking a hitter, opting to pitch to him.

The strategy worked like a charm. The Eagles shut down Wynford in the bottom of the seventh inning and scored a run in the top of the eighth to get a 5-4 win Friday night.

With the win, the Eagles won their fourth straight game and improved to 5-3 in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference, 7-4 overall. Wynford fell to 4-4 in the conference, 5-7 overall.

The game was supposed to be played at Wynford but was moved to Colonel Crawford due to wet conditions. Wynford was still the home team.

But Gorbett needed to show all his experience in the bottom of the seventh with the game tied at 4-4.

Nate Imbody opened the inning with a double down the left field line, Seth Benedict laid down a perfect bunt down the third base line and the runners moved to second and third with no one out.

With first base open and left-handed hitter Zach Harer in the box, Gorbett decided against walking Harer.

Harer popped up to first, before Colonel Crawford pitcher Kade Hamilton fanned the next two hitters to end the inning.

Gorbett said that he considered the intentional walk.

“We were going to walk him to load the bases and now you’re putting pressure on the pitcher with no outs,” Gorbett said. “So now he has to throw strikes.

“We tried to get him to swing at a bad pitch and he did. We said don’t throw him anything real good and if he swings at it, good. If he walks that’s fine. Then once we got that out, then we work those hitters, then we throw more off-speed stuff to those hitters so if we walk them, that’s OK. That gave us some freedom to not just have to throw fastballs in there.”

In the top of the eighth, Hamilton reached when the Wynford centerfielder dropped the ball on a tough challenge, then moved to third on a two-base throwing error with the next hitter. He scored the lead run on a Gavin Feichtner single.

The Eagles took a 3-0 lead in the first inning on three unearned runs, but the Royals came back to eventually tie the game in the sixth.

“We told them to stay patient and keep battling back,” Wynford coach Tom Smith said. “We’ve come back three or four times like that. They don’t give up.

“They do a good job in coming back,” Smith added. “I know they are a little frustrated losing two games in a row. We had to play back-to-back games on the road, and both were one-run losses.”

The Royals scored in the bottom of the first on an RBI single from Kendal Blair and cut the lead to 3-2 in the second on a Harer single.

Crawford increased the lead to 4-2 in the third on an RBI double by Brock Ritzhaupt.

The Royals got an unearned run in the fourth and tied the game in the sixth on a Cody Taylor double to right center.

Feichtner started and worked three frames for the Eagles, permitting two runs and two hits. He struck out one and walked five. Hamilton finished the game, permitting one earned run and five hits, He struck out he struck out four and walked four.

“Our pitchers struggled with control which we haven’t done all year,” Gorbett said. “But I told the team even though we left a lot of guys on base all day, when the pressure was on and we needed to make a play we made a play. We’ve done that several times this week. When the pressure is on, they really come through.”

Josh Crall started on the hill for the Royals and gave up five runs but just one was earned. He struck out four and walked three.

“Josh pitched a great game,” Smith said. “I think he only threw about 105 pitches, so he was efficient. He threw a lot of strikes. We made errors in that first inning and gave up three unearned runs. That’s the difference in the game.”

Gorbett said he likes the direction that his team is moving.

“This is four wins in a row now and we are getting better. Hopefully, by tournament time we’ll have everything all cleaned up.”

Box score

Colonel Crawford 301 000 01    5   10    2

Wynford                 110 101 00     4    7    4

WP: Kade Hamilton (4 SO, 3 W)

LP: Josh Crall (4 SO, 3 W)

HR: None.

Triples: None.

Doubles: (CC) Brock Ritzhaupt; (W) Cody Taylor, Nate Imbody.

Multiple hits: (CC) Carson Feichtner 3, Kade Hamilton, Caleb Lohr; (W) Zach Harer.

Records: Colonel Crawford 7-4 (5-3 N10); Wynford 5-7 (4-4 N10).

Next: Colonel Crawford at Seneca East, Monday; Wynford at Carey, Monday.