Shaylen Kshatriya wore an oversized Lake Park hat given to the player of the game, as he was surrounded by teammates in a postgame huddle.

Getting a big head?

Fat chance of Kshatriya ever becoming guilty of that. He didn’t make the varsity team as a junior, and opted to be the team manager.

A year later, Kshatriya has worked his way into the lineup, all the way up to hitting fifth Wednesday.

“I just had to stick with it,” Kshatriya said.

That perseverance paid dividends for Lake Park’s senior catcher.

The left-hitting Kshatriya lined a tie-breaking two-run double down the left field line with two outs in the bottom of the sixth.

The fourth-seeded Lancers scored five runs in the sixth – all with two outs – to rally past ninth-seeded York 10-6 in Wednesday’s Class 4A Bartlett Sectional semifinal.

Lake Park (18-20) batted around in both a three-run fifth, and the sixth, to advance to Saturday’s sectional final against second-seeded Maine South.

“Dangerous teams keep the score within range and dangerous teams can get to you later,” York coach River Pitlock said. “That’s what they did. It was a great game.”

York pitchers hit six batters and walked three, and a hit batter and two walks in the sixth loaded the bases for Lake Park with two out trailing 6-5.

Lake Park’s Connor Hogan beat out a grounder in the hole to tie it, bringing up Kshatriya.

Kshatriya laced the opposite-field double down the line to drive in two.

“I was looking low line drive up the middle,” Kshatriya said. “This team has had some streaks. We know what it takes.”

Kshatriya only has 47 plate appearances on the season, but he’s made the most of them, hitting .385 with nine RBIs. He batted eighth in the team’s regional final win, but moved up three spots Wednesday.

Kshatriya drove in Lake Park’s first run with an RBI single in the first, and reached base in all four plate appearances.

“Our team manager last year, didn’t make the team, sat most of this year and got his opportunity. What a story,” Lake Park coach Dan Colucci said. “I always say when the door opens kick it in, and he kicked it in.”

York (15-20), which knocked off top-seeded Willowbrook in a regional final, came out hot.

Chris Winton, who reached base four times, doubled on the game’s first pitch and scored on Evan Mendiola’s two-out single, a second run coming in on an error.

The Dukes added single runs in the third, fourth and fifth, the latter two on leadoff homers from Charlie Martin and Mendiola.

Mendiola also reached base four times.

“The bats were there. We were hitting the ball hard all over the place,” Pitlock said. “A couple double plays they turned, they wore us down a little bit, got pitches they could hit and capitalized on them.”

Gaetano Lazzara’s triple down the line started Lake Park’s three-run fifth, the tying run scoring on a double steal. Winton’s two-out double swung York back ahead in the top of the sixth, preceding Lake Park’s big bottom half.

“Not ideal to be down, we’ve been struggling with the bats, it was not where we wanted to be but testament to the these guys with great two-strike approaches,” Colucci said. “We grind out at bats, we constantly say get the next guy up. Hogan battled with two strikes and beat out that hit, opened up the inning.”

York, in defeat, could appreciate the program’s continued playoff success – a fifth straight regional title, even as a lower seed.

“That is what we’re trying to build,” Pitlock said. “Five regional championships in a row, we have young ballplayers that get to learn and get to see what it takes, we have a community that comes out to watch, Little League guys, it becomes a town thing. Something we’re trying to do at York is put a name out there.”