It was a moment Michael Silvius had dreamt of since he was a child.

Even in batting practice, Silvius hadn’t hit one out of the park at any point during his high school career at Crystal Lake South. Stepping up with a runner on first and the Gators trailing by one in the bottom of the seventh inning, Silvius was still seeking his first hit of the night.

“I struggled in my first two at-bats,” Silvius said. “I went out looking in the first, popped out in the second and got a barrel in the third.”

Facing Prairie Ridge left-hander Jack Hermann, a teammate in travel baseball, Silvius knew he could be aggressive after Hermann walked Wes Bogda on four pitches in the previous at-bat. The South junior knew a fastball was coming and, with a mighty swing, blasted the first pitch beyond the left-field fence for his first high school home run.

The walk-off shot lifted the Gators over the Wolves 8-7 and sealed South’s 20th win of the season in the team’s Fox Valley Conference finale.

For Silvius, who received a Gatorade bath from his teammates after his postgame interview, it was a moment he’ll never forget.

“I was looking for a fastball,” Silvius said. “I knew the fastball was coming, so I saw it and attacked it. That’s my first home run ever. Seeing the guys cheer me on and seeing them on the way home was a surreal feeling. ... I finally got ahold of one and it felt awesome.”

It was a back-and-forth finale as the lead changed four times from the top of the first to Silvius’ walk-off homer in the seventh.

Prairie Ridge (19-8, 12-6 FVC) trailed 5-2 after four frames, but earned two back after Beckett Breseman singled and Gavin Piekos smashed a two-run homer off South left-hander Devin DeLoach in the fifth.

Piekos then delivered one of the game’s biggest hits in the sixth. With the bases loaded and Prairie Ridge trailing 5-4, Piekos worked South right-hander Tanner Maurer to a full count before ripping a three-run double that rolled to the left-field wall.

South took a run back in the bottom half, singling twice and scoring on a double-play grounder.

“My prior two at-bats weren’t the best,” Piekos said. “I took a few fastballs and I knew they were going to hammer me with fastballs. I took advantage of that. I fouled off a few pitches and I was able to put one out. This was our last conference game and we wanted to win, so I was thinking of whatever I could do to get on base for the team.”

Prairie Ridge scored in each of the first two innings. The Wolves went up 1-0 on Maddon McKim’s RBI groundout in the first before Zach Techen laced an infield single to the second-base side for an RBI in the second. With two runners on, South’s Carson Trivellini, an Illinois baseball recruit, fired a two-run, line-drive single in the bottom half.

“The guys got on in front of me, so all I had to do was hit a ball hard,” said Trivellini, who was 2 for 4 with three RBIs from the lead-off hole. “I’m just trying to hit a ball hard in the gap somewhere and let the guys behind me bring me in because we have a lot of power.”

South (20-9, 10-8 FVC) took its largest lead of the game two frames later. Michael Rathjen, who went 3 for 3 in Friday’s FVC matchup, hit a lead-off double and scored on Ryan Morgan’s line drive single one at-bat later. Trivellini followed with an RBI double and Nolan Dabrowski beat out a bunt single, setting up a sacrifice fly for Jackson Lee.

“I stayed through the middle,” said Rathjen, who scored three runs for the Gators. “It’s a confidence builder that will get us going again.”

Breseman went 2 for 3 and scored two runs atop the order for the Wolves, who play three nonconference games next week before the start of regionals. Prairie Ridge will host Carmel on Monday, while South will face Kaneland on the road Tuesday. The Gators will also play a trio of nonconference games before beginning regional competition.

“I was seeing it well,” Breseman said. “[Devin] DeLoach had a lot of good stuff, so I think I was reacting and I found a few barrels.”