Forget sabermetrics.

Baseball is a game of inches.

And sometimes, it’s the smallest margin that can spell the difference between winning and losing.

The ball bounced Pleasant Valley’s way Monday in a walk-off, 2-1 victory over Northampton in a District 11 Class 6A first round game.

With the bases loaded and one out, Danny McEvoy lofted a fly ball to right field that fell in, allowing Brandon Ratti to score from third base to send the Bears to Wednesday’s quarterfinals against top seed Parkland. “Fortunately, it went our way this time,” said Pleasant Valley head coach Jeff Lazowski. “There’s been a couple times this year that it didn’t go our way. A hop here, a hop there; or a fly ball there, and it didn’t go our way.

“But fortunately today, the sun was shining bright on us, and here we are moving on to Wednesday.”

McEvoy’s pop up to right field was ruled to have landed in fair territory after Northampton fielders converged on the ball to make a play, and Ratti raced home from third with the winning run.

“We had the opportunity there with the bases loaded, and less than two outs, and we were scoring a run one way or the other there on that play,” said Lazowski. “If he happened to catch that ball, he (Ratti) was tagging and coming home.”

Ratti worked a one-out walk to start the rally before stealing second. Back-to-back intentional walks to Nick Gattuso and Trevor Knappenberger loaded the bases for cleanup hitter McEvoy.

“You can’t take away from what these guys did,” said Northampton head coach Mick Sugra. “We battled back and won five of out of the last seven to qualify, so we got hot at the right time. We just didn’t do the job here today.”

The eighth-seeded Bears took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning when Matt Burnett’s two-out RBI single scored McEvoy.

Isaac Tucker scored in the top of the fourth inning for the No. 9 seed Konkrete Kids to tie the score at 1-1 until Pleasant Valley walked it off in the bottom of the seventh.

“It was a close game, we just tell the guys to stay loose,” said Sugra. “We try to put them in those pressure situations in practices and stuff like that, so come game time they’re used to it. But what can you say? They (Pleasant Valley) played a heck of a game, we played a heck of a game, it came down to the end there and it is what it is.”

Both starting pitchers showed poise on the mound.

Travis Knappenberger allowed four hits and walked one while recording one strikeout in six innings of work for the Bears (13-8).

Northampton’s (10-11) Cole Rufe gave up seven hits and three walks, striking out three while throwing 98 pitches.

PV did not play Parkland, which had a first-round bye, in the regular season.

It’s an opportunity the Bears are looking forward to.

“It’s just huge to get this win. Now, we get to play a Parkland team that’s gonna be heavily favored, obviously,” said Gattuso. “They’re a great baseball team. But we’re a great team, too.

“When we play solid, fundamental baseball, we can beat anybody. It doesn’t matter who we play. Parkland’s just a school, just like Pleasant Valley is. They’re a good baseball team, but so are we. We just have to take advantage of the opportunities we’re being given.”

HITTERS … Tucker Brittain Shander, Kyle Morin and Seth Lakey had hits for Northampton. Burnett, Gattuso, Brent Beck, Collin Stivala and Justin Stasiak had hits for Pleasant Valley.

TWO-FOR-TWO … In their only regular season meeting on April 14, Pleasant Valley defeated Northampton 7-6.

Northampton 000 100 0 - 1 5 1

Pleasant Valley 001 000 1 - 2 7 3

Rufe and Lambert; Knappenberger, McEvoy (7) and Greenzweig. W - McEvoy. L - Rufe.