The Bishop Hendricken baseball team was down 3-0 to La Salle Academy entering the bottom of the sixth on Saturday with its perfect season and a trip to the losers’ bracket on the line.

Manager Ed Holloway and his squad weren’t fazed, though.

The Hawks rallied for three runs in the sixth frame before walking off in the final inning without the benefit of a hit to move into the winners’ bracket portion of the Regional Pod I Final.

“I really wasn’t [nervous],” Holloway said. “We’re prepared to play and whatever happens, happens. You just got to be patient, relaxed and we fought, we came back and I’m happy to see that. It’s a good sign.”

Rams’ senior pitcher Ryan Quirk had allowed just one Hendricken runner to get into scoring position and walked no one during his first 5 1/3 innings of work, keeping the undefeated Hawks at bay.

After catcher Gian Martellini’s lineout to centerfield to start the sixth, third baseman John Toppa earned a walk. Centerfielder Dante Baldelli followed up with patience of his own to earn Quirk’s second straight free pass. Baldelli and Toppa advanced to second and third, respectively, on a wild pitch that hit the dirt in front of home plate and bounced to the backstop.

“I’m sure [Quirk] tired a little bit, and we saw him a couple of times through the lineup and we got good hitters,” Holloway said. “A lot of it’s the law of averages. They’re going to get hits at some point. Their pitcher pitched a great game, mixed it up, changed speeds, did a really good job. We got some breaks and took advantage of it and came back and stole one.”

First baseman Andrew Ciacciarelli then took a 1-2 pitch and lined it up the middle to score Toppa and Baldelli and cut the deficit to 1. Ciacciarelli advanced to second base on the throw home.

Rams’ manager Mark Mercurio pulled Quirk from the game after the single and opted for southpaw Broderick Santilli against Hendricken’s left-handed designated hitter Michael Webb. After Santilli’s threw his warm-up pitches, Holloway pulled Webb for pinch hitter and right-handed bat Andrew Flint.

The gamble worked in Holloway’s favor as Flint blooped a single down the right field line to plate Ciacciarelli on a close play at home to bring the score level at 3.

“After [La Salle] went up 2-0 we said ‘Hey, we got three innings to go, we got to battle,’” Holloway said. “I said ‘You got to make him work.’ I think they got a little bit more patient after that and we got a couple of big hits. Ciacciarelli got a big hit for us, Flint got a big hit pinch-hitting for us. They stayed in control.”

Hendricken starter Matt Kennedy finished off his complete game in the top of the seventh with one of his best and quickest innings. He forced two groundouts and a pop out on just nine pitches to keep the game tied. Kennedy allowed three runs on six hits with one walk and one strikeout.

Shortstop John Willette led off the final frame by getting hit by a pitch, advancing to second on left fielder Kevin Sutyla’s sacrifice bunt. Santilli intentionally walked Martellini, and after a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third base, Santilli did the same to Toppa.

Baldelli worked the count full before taking ball four high above the letters to bring Willette home from third on his second walk in as many innings.

“I was only going to swing at the beginning of the count, if it was a good pitch out, I was going to chase out of the zone just to put the ball in play,” Baldelli said. “And he ended up throwing a 2-2 fastball low and away, and I knew it was a ball, so I had some discipline, took it. And luckily the umpire saw what I saw and left it. I was looking for anything close, and luckily last pitch he threw one that wasn’t in the zone.”

The Hawks could not take advantage of their chances in the first five innings, grounding into five fielder’s choice opportunities and leaving at least one runner on base in four of five frames.

The Rams were hitless during the first three innings until Santilli singled to right centerfield to lead off the fourth. A sacrifice bunt and flyout to right field moved him to third base, where he scored on an RBI single from left fielder Armani Henderson.

Captain Tyler Walsh, who earned a walk after an 11-pitch at-bat, was later brought home on shortstop Ryan Tracy’s single into right centerfield to extend the Rams’ lead to 2-0. They were poised to add more, but Tracy was thrown out at second base on a failed double-steal attempt to end the threat.

La Salle added another in the sixth with more help from the speedy Santilli. He reached on a bunt single to start the inning and stole second, the only one of three runners to beat Martellini on the day. Captain Tyler Shemick drove Santilli in on an RBI single down the left field line to bring the advantage out to 3-0. Kennedy forced Tracy to ground out to second base to end the inning with runners at the corners.

Hendricken reached the Rams in the second round with a six-inning, 12-2 defeat of No. 8-seeded Woonsocket on Thursday afternoon. Senior ace Mike McCaffrey tossed five innings, allowing one earned run on two hits with eight strikeouts. Martellini registered an RBI triple and a three-run home run on the day and Willette picked up the game-ending, two-RBI single in the bottom of the sixth. Nine of the 11 Hawks that batted against the Villa Novans recorded at least one run scored.

“When we finished the [final regular season] game last week against Middletown, we were like ‘18-0, great,’ but coming into the playoffs everybody’s 0-0,” Martellini said on Thursday. “We just kind of took this game as any other game. Play hard, everybody did their part and it was a great team win.”

The Hawks had a rematch with the Rams on Monday with a trip to McCarthy Field in West Warwick for another appearance in the Final Four waiting. La Salle once again beat North Providence, this time in the losers’ bracket, to advance to the Regional Pod I Final. In two postseason games against the Cougars, the Rams outscored them 24-2.

Hendricken has defeated La Salle in all three contests this season including the postseason. In two regular season games, the Hawks beat the Rams 6-1 and 8-0. Results were not available at press time.