In high school baseball, it’s often the experienced, veteran player who comes through in key situations.

And sometimes it’s a freshman.

T.J. Otis blooped a single to left with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to bring home Chase Hurley with the winning run as Centennial earned a 4-3 home victory over Basic, the No. 1 team in the Review-Journal’s Class 5A rankings, on Wednesday.

“He’s a freshman for us, and he’s been doing it all year,” Centennial coach Chris Martinez said. “You know, he’s hitting in the big spot for us, he’s not scared. He’s our little spark plug. He gets after it, he competes. A great job just to find some green.”

Hurley reached on a throwing error by third baseman Matthew Kelley to start the inning. One out later, Kobe Peterson singled up the middle to move runners to first and second. After Tyler Jackson struck out, Otis came to the plate and fought off an 0-1 pitch from reliever Andruw Giles, dropping a single into left field, and Hurley easily beat the throw to the plate to give the Bulldogs (16-9, 4-3 5A Mountain League) the win.

Otis, who went 2-for-4 with three RBIs from the cleanup spot, said his focus was simple in the big situation.

“Just to pass the bat,” Otis said. “Just to pass the bat. I had teammates that got on and that got me to that spot, so that was good.”

Basic (14-5, 5-2) jumped on the Bulldogs in the top of the first, scoring a pair of runs on a two-run blast to left field by Tate Southisene.

But Centennial didn’t stay back on its heels for long. Bulldogs leadoff hitter Jake Turner smoked a line drive to center that fooled Giles and got over his head for a double, and the Centennial dugout immediately showed more life.

“We got punched in the first inning. We give up a two-run homer right there, and our leadoff guy comes up, another sophomore kid that we have, and gets us right back into position,” Martinez said. “They didn’t back down, built some confidence in the dugout.”

Jackson added a double to put runners on second and third, and Turner came home on a groundout by Otis.

Centennial left-hander Kane Barber fought off some control struggles to go the distance and pick up the victory. He needed more than 20 pitches in each of the first two innings, but battled to finish with a six-hitter. Barber allowed two earned runs, struck out five and walked one. He finished at 103 pitches.

“Kane pitched his tail off,” Martinez said. “He gave up a couple early and stayed composed. He started locating and I feel like he got stronger as the game went on, and he wanted the ball in the seventh inning, wanted to stay in the game. It was his game.”

Centennial trailed 3-1 going into the bottom of the fifth, but plated two runs to tie the game. Giovanni Telfer was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and went to third on a double by Noa Oyadomari. Telfer scored on a groundout by Hurley, and Otis brought home the tying run with an infield single.

Oyadomari went 2-for-3 for Centennial.

“To be able to come out and beat Basic today, it’s a big win and it’s a step in the right direction fr us,” Martinez said. “Obviously we’ll see them here in a few days again. And then we still have a couple real good opponents down the way, but to get a win today kind of gets us back feeling confident and just getting ready for the next one.”

Kelley was 2-for-3 with a run for the Wolves.