EPHRATA — Zac Berryman’s back is a little sore at this point in the season, sore enough to keep him out of team wind sprints after the game Tuesday night as the temperatures dipped to 50 degrees.

But the Ephrata senior, who’s headed to Walla Walla Community College next season, didn’t hesitate for a second when the wild pitch skipped past Selah catcher Devon Garner’s glove and skittered to the backstop.

Berryman beat the throw uncontested to the plate.

The Tigers (7-5, 6-4 CWAC) took that one-run lead into the seventh inning where they were one out from upending the (11-1, 9-1) Vikings. But Selah came back with three in the top of the seventh to punctuate why they are the top team in the Central Washington Athletic Conference with a 3-2 victory.

“We believe we can play with anybody and we showed that tonight,” said Berryman. “They have good pitching, but we have guys that can hit them. We were up there swinging. It was close.”

The game went scoreless into the fourth, where the Tigers were still hanging around. Despite remarkable location pitching by left-handers Reid Rasmussen (10) and Payton Andreas (8), who combined for 18 strikeouts.

The Tigers were the ones that took a 1-0 lead into the final inning.

Ephrata starter Trent Kleyn went the distance, striking out four, walking four, while scattering five hits. The Tiger right-hander, who had the 7-8-9 batters coming his way, made his only mistake of the night when he plunked lead-off hitter Chase Ergeson.

The Vikings did what good teams do. They bunted him down and Ergeson moved to third on a ground ball to Berryman at shortstop, who threw out Kasey Kosik for the second out.

Ephrata skipper Jason Laugen went to the mound for a talk and opted to let Kleyn finish what he started.

“I went out there to remind him we have two outs,” Laugen said. “We have two outs and a guy on third base. They’re going to get their hits, but (Trent’s) throwing pitches, he wasn’t tired. He’s a junior and a big-time pitcher. I just told him to focus on location.”

Dylan Bishop pulled a ball into the gap on the left side of the infield to tie the game. Carter Young drove in the go-ahead run and the CWAC-leaders picked up another on a misplay in the outfield, scoring three runs on two hits in their final at-bat.

Ephrata closed the gap when Ethan Etter drew a base-on-balls and scored on a Kyle Hendrick RBI to the right side of the infield.

“I felt pretty good tonight. It’s always good to have Etter behind the plate. He’s always working hard and making me feel comfortable,” Kleyn said. “We know we can play with the top teams in the league and we belong up there with them.”

Selah 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 - 3 6 0

Ephrata 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 - 2 3 1

Ephrata hits: Gunnar Falstad (2), Kyle Hendrick