Bryce Baxa lifted one finger in the air before his foot even hit the first-base bag, the ball was caught and the winning run scored.

“I knew it was home,” Baxa said.

The Yorkville sophomore had ample reason to doubt this season. After a strong freshman year on varsity, Baxa this spring endured the adversity that often besets young athletes after early success.

But Baxa stuck with it – and delivered Thursday with the season on the line.

Baxa delivered a deep fly ball with the bases loaded for a sacrifice fly to drive in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh, as Yorkville won a wild 9-8 Class 4A Oswego East Regional semifinal over the host Wolves.

Yorkville (23-11), which advances to face Downers Grove North in Saturday’s regional final, had ace Gabe Sanders knocked out in the third inning and overcame a four-run deficit to twice take a lead. Then the Foxes won in walk-off fashion after Oswego East (16-18) had tied it on Noah Deist’s two-run single with two out in the top of the seventh.

“Just a gritty game. Two teams not wanting to lose,” Yorkville coach Tom Cerven said. “Can’t speak enough about our guys. Even though we got behind, they never stopped believing, never lost that confidence.

“We have our flaws as a team, especially offensively, but we found a way today to bail out our defense, which typically is one of our strong suits.”

Baxa, for his part, has had an up-and-down season, batting .190 on the year and struggling in the middle portion of it. But he started to click in recent weeks and spoke to the mental climb.

“The biggest reason I struggled in the first place was just the pressure of having a good season last year. I had to learn how to fail,” Baxa said. “The season has already not been good for me, I’m going to do my part and forget about everything else at the beginning of the season. It was just going up and being natural.”

Baxa singled in a go-ahead run in Yorkville’s five-run third that gave the Foxes their first lead, 6-5.

He came to bat in the seventh after Kal Arntzen doubled to lead off, and Oswego East intentionally walked two batters after a sacrifice bunt. Baxa took a ball, swung through the next pitch, then connected the opposite way to bring home courtesy runner Robbie Mueller.

“I just had to calm down. First take I was calm, got anxious, and I calmed down again,” Baxa said. “Try to keep it up the middle away. I knew he was going to throw me offspeed. They were trying to get that weak ground ball. I was ready for it.”

“In that situation it’s all about not rolling over the ball,” Cerven said. “Worst thing you can do is be too aggressive, roll over something soft and they have a play at the plate. First swing he was a little out front, made the adjustment, stayed back and drove the ball away.”

Cerven, likewise, isn’t surprised at the adjustments – and the work – Baxa has put in to overcome his sophomore slump.

“He is a great kid, a really hard-working kid, he might be the hardest-working kid I’ve had here,” Cerven said. “He’ll probably go home tonight and hit for half an hour.

“For him to be able to come through the way he did, despite his struggles, still being a team guy, even when he was not in the lineup, it’s great to see him have that kind of success.”

The game was the latest wild one between teams with a history of them, especially on this diamond.

UIC recruit Dominic Battista’s two-run homer helped stake Oswego East to a 5-1 lead off Yorkville and Sanders, but the Foxes sent 10 batters to the plate in a five-run third, aided by two Wolves’ errors.

Oswego East tied it 6-6 on a dropped-third strike error with two out in the fifth, but Yorkville swung back ahead with Gavin Geegan’s two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth.

Battista was intentionally walked with two out and runners on second and third in the seventh, and Deist lined the first pitch he saw for a single to tie it again.

That rally was furthered along when a Yorkville outfielder fell down on Niko Villacci’s double.

“We had the momentum, they had the momentum,” Oswego East coach Brian Schaeffer said. “We tied it twice and gave ourselves opportunities to win.

“I think we’ve had in the past couple years six or seven walk-offs between the two teams. Our teams are so similar, they compete with each other, they know each other well, it’s a good competition. Seems like it’s always like this.”