MAYVILLE — With the game on the line in the bottom of the seventh inning Monday in Mayville, Falconer coach Chris Schrader didn’t give Devin Pope a chance to beat his Golden Falcons.

Three innings later, the Chautauqua Lake senior took matters into his own hands.

Pope tripled to lead off the bottom of the 10th inning and scored on Luke Waters’ grounder one batter later as the sixth-seeded Thunderbirds beat No. 11 Falconer, 3-2, in a Section VI Class C prequarterfinal.

“I was hoping he was going to throw me a strike because they walked me last time,” Pope said. “I saw him bobble it in center and I was definitely going for third.”

“Luke Waters is a freshman, but he has the mentality of an upperclassmen. He just doesn’t get fazed. He’s cool, calm and collected,” Chautauqua Lake coach Brian Bongiovanni said. ” … It was the right man in the right spot. He’s a great contact hitter. We told him ‘choke, poke and put the ball in play.’ … We were very fortunate to have him up in that spot.”

The win sends Chautauqua Lake into today’s quarterfinal at No. 3 Allegany-Limestone. The game may be moved to St. Bonaventure University depending on the weather.

“We just have to come ready to play,” Pope said about today’s matchup with the Gators. ” … We know we can play with anybody. … We’re ready.”

Monday’s game was a pitcher’s duel throughout with Pope and Golden Falcons’ starter Matt Gullotti going pitch for pitch at each other.

Once the game got to the bullpens, not much changed.

Thunderbirds junior Kyler Majka relieved Pope after a leadoff walk in the seventh and retired 12 of the 15 batters he faced without allowing a run, striking out six.

“He had a couple of really quick, efficient innings at the start. The guys were aware that if we pushed one across he would be able to come back (today),” Bongiovanni said. ” … We just kept scrapping. To our credit when we did have bad at-bats we did not take it to the field. … We were able to flip it to the top of the order and we came through.”

Falconer’s Nate Abbey was nearly as good after taking over for Gullotti to open the eighth inning, allowing just one base runner prior to Pope’s leadoff triple in the 10th.

“It’s a great testament to both teams. This was 100 percent a pitching battle. You had four kids who threw their hearts out,” Schrader said. “There were very few mistakes … Unfortunately we just came out on the short end of it.”

Chautauqua Lake struck first as Pope led off the game by reaching on an error, went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Waters, advanced to third on Majka’s single off Gullotti’s glove, and scored on Nate Engdahl’s RBI single. The Thunderbirds loaded the bases with one out, but Gullotti got out of the inning with a pair of strikeouts.

“You have that first run unearned. … You hate to look back at one play, it was a combination of things,” Schrader said. “For a 10th-grader in his first playoff appearance … to be able to work out of it says a lot. From there, he just got stronger.”

The Golden Falcons got a runner to third in the third inning before Pope struck out the final batter of the frame. Then in the fifth, Falconer finally got on the board. Ben Schrader walked to open the inning before pinch-runner Jimmy Kramer went to second on Gage Lindell’s sacrifice bunt. After a strikeout, Ryan Stimson hit an RBI single to tie the game at 1-1. Abbey then reached on a fielder’s choice when Stimson beat a forceout at second and Bobby Samuelson reached on a dropped third strike before Pope walked Trent Wood to give the Golden Falcons a short-lived 2-1 lead.

“I was so mad,” Pope said about the bases-loaded walk. “I was just telling myself one more and we’re out of it.”

In the bottom of the inning, freshman call-up Gavin Sauerland reached on a fielder’s choice for the first out and scored on Pope’s RBI double to left-center field. Pope was thrown out trying to make it to third on the play, which proved costly when Waters singled with two outs.

“At that point, you think 2-1 could win this thing,” Schrader said. “They answered in the bottom of the fifth to tie it up. Both teams were doing what they had to do to push that one across and win.”

Freshman call-up Hunter Harris walked with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning and pinch-runner Austin Strong moved to second on Sauerland’s sacrifice bunt before Falconer elected to walk Pope. Waters followed with a groundout to first ending the threat, but he and Pope more than made up for it in their next at-bats, sending the Thunderbirds into the quarterfinals.

“We’ve had so many close ballgames this year where we’ve come out on the short end of it. We were preaching ‘keep battling, keep battling. We’re eventually going to flip one or two plays and we’ll be celebrating at the end of this,'” Bongiovanni said was his message to the team. “Credit to these kids. We put some young kids in a tough spot today. … It’s a testament to their attitude, sticking together. It was great to see them celebrate after such a tough season.”

NOTES: Pope struck out nine while allowing two hits and two runs in six-plus innings for the Thunderbirds before Majka’s four innings of six-strikeout, one-hit shutout pitching. … Gullotti struck out eight while allowing seven hits and two runs in seven innings for the Golden Falcons before Abbey struck out two while allowing two hits and a run in two-plus innings. … Pope reached base four times, including his double and triple, while Nate Engdahl and Cody Triana each had two hits for Chautauqua Lake. … Nobody had two hits for Falconer, which received a nice diving catch from Ben Bloomquist in right field to end the ninth inning.