If rainbows are thought to be lucky, then Monday's occurrence at Northwestern High School only served as proof to that claim.

Facing a 5-3 deficit heading into the seventh inning of Monday's District 11 Class AAA pigtail game against No. 9 seeded Wilson, No. 8 Northwestern was on the verge of seeing its season end.

But as the seventh began with a visibly bright rainbow arching over center field, the tide started to turn for the Tigers.

Nick Rodriguez started off the frame with a ground-rule double and scored two batters later to make it a 5-4 game. Austin Yanek stepped to the plate with runners on second and third and two outs looking to make a play. And with the first pitch, Yanek lined a hard hit single to the Warriors' infield-scoring both Tyler Schreiner and Taylor Breininger, to propel the Tigers onto the district quarterfinals with a 6-5 victory.

"I told myself there was no way I'm ending my career," Yanek said. "I knew he's been throwing about 75 percent first-pitch strikes. I was like 'see the first pitch strike, it's right there, [and] I'll just swing at it.'"

When the seventh began, Rodriguez just wanted to get on base and give the Tigers some hope. He did just that with a deep shot to center that one-hopped over the wall. He scored when Schreiner's fourth ball of the at-bat was a wild pitch that got away from Wilson catcher Jon Cintron.

"My mindset was to get on because I know we can all pick each other up and we needed base-runners," Rodriguez said. "The only way we're going to score runs is by getting people on base."

Breininger walked after Schreiner, and Jordan Storm's groundout to third base advanced the runners into scoring position for the senior Yanek.

Rodriguez also came in to pitch the final inning and 2/3 in relief of starter Josh Williamson. He earned the win after allowing just one hit and striking out two batters, including a quick one-two-three top half of the seventh.

"I just needed to come in and throw strikes," Rodriguez said. "Even though I let up the one run, I was a little upset about that, but I know we have good hitting and we can still score runs."

Despite scoring three runs in the first four innings, the Tigers' bats were held in check until their final three outs. They managed just four hits through six innings, but eight walks and two hit batters on the day gave the boys in black and gold a number of chances to score.

On three separate occasions, the Tigers ended an inning with runners left on second and third base. But for a team that has been familiar with putting together strong late-game efforts, they'll take the win, which set up a quarterfinals meeting with No. 1 seed Pottsville on Wednesday.

"It seems like we like to keep the games close," Rodriguez said. "We've been in a lot of one-run games this year. It's good to come up on the winning side, especially in districts."

The Tigers held a brief 1-0 lead after the first inning when Rodriguez's double scored Brady Mengel. But the Warriors responded with four hits and three runs in the second inning to regain control.

Williamson connected on a RBI-single in the fourth that scored the second of two runs for Yanek and tied the game back up, 3-3. Wilson answered with runs in the fifth and sixth frames.

Wednesday's game at Pottsville was played after Press deadline. See next week's issue for coverage.