The Bishop Hendricken baseball team had four one-run wins on the season coming into game one of its Final Four series against Moses Brown on Friday night.

The Hawks would get their fifth one with a 1-0 victory over the Quakers, but it was undoubtedly their toughest of the five wins this spring.

Hendricken and Moses Brown took a scoreless game into the 12th inning before left fielder Kevin Sutyla drove a Jared Schott pitch to the wall in right field that plated John Willette from second, ending the marathon affair and giving the Hawks a 1-0 win and a 1-0 lead in the series.

“I think they kept themselves focused, but were just exhausted,” Hendricken head coach Ed Holloway said. “They didn’t give in and they battled.”

And what a battle it was.

Sutyla’s RBI hit put an end to a game that featured an epic pitcher’s duel.

Hendricken’s Mike McCaffrey and Moses Brown’s Colton King both received no decisions for the game, but their pitching lines suggested that 99 times out of 100 they would’ve gotten wins for their respective performances.

Unfortunately for them, that one time was Friday night.

McCaffrey dazzled as he has all season, allowing just two hits over 10 scoreless frames. Additionally, he tossed eight no-hit innings before Roberto Valentini led off the top of the ninth with a single.

McCaffrey struck out 11 in those 10 innings, and only allowed one baserunner to third – Valentini in the ninth – but he fanned Moses Brown’s No. 3 hitter, Cal Slepkow, to escape the jam unscathed.

King was almost as impressive in the other dugout.

After allowing three baserunners through the first two innings, King settled in.

The senior right-hander matched his counterpart, hurling 10 scoreless innings as well while battling through an extremely high pitch count.

King would record 10 strikeouts over his 10 innings of work.

Holloway has seen quite a few high school games as head coach of Hendricken, and only one game reminded him of Friday night’s pitcher’s duel – a 10-inning game that the Hawks played against Pilgrim back in 2001 that featured former Minnesota Twins draft pick Jay Rainville.

However, not even that game went 12 innings.

“I think we won that game 2-1,” Holloway said. “That game reminded me of this game and this game reminded me of that game. We never went past 10 before I don’t think, but luckily we were able to hang in there and get the win.”

But the Hawks looked as if they had the game won in the bottom of the sixth inning.

With one out and Willette on second, Gian Martellini grounded a ball down the third base line that seemed to be fair, scoring Willette.

However, one umpire called the ball foul and another called it fair, triggering a meeting between the two officials, who eventually decided to deem it a foul ball.

King then got Martellini to pop out before striking out Dante Baldelli to end the threat.

That would be Hendricken’s best opportunity to score until the 11th inning.

The Quakers brought in Slepkow to pitch, who retired the first batter that he faced before walking two and hitting a batter to load the bases.

But he buckled down and got Mike Webb to pop out and Elijah Brown to ground out to push the game to a 12th inning.

Webb relieved McCaffrey in the 11th inning and threw two scoreless frames, allowing just one baserunner and striking out three en route to picking up the victory.

And in the bottom of the 12th, Sutyla was finally able to put an end to the 3-hour-and-15-minute battle.

Hendricken’s stellar pitching would carry over into Saturday afternoon’s game two, as Matt Kennedy threw a complete-game shutout in a 2-0 win that clinched the Hawks a berth in the state championship series at McCoy Stadium yet again.

Game one against Cumberland will be played tonight at 6 p.m.

The Hawks will be searching for their fourth consecutive Division I state championship.

If they’re able to achieve that goal, Friday night’s game may be looked back upon as maybe the toughest test that the Hawks faced all season.