Faith Lutheran baseball coach Dave Anderson won’t apologize for his team finally catching a little luck.

But his team’s break came with the Crusaders’ season on the line.

Faith Lutheran turned a botched squeeze bunt into the tying run as part of a three-run seventh, and the Crusaders edged Palo Verde 7-6 on Friday to earn a trip to the Class 5A state tournament.

“We’ve had a lot of things falling against us, and credit to that team across the way, but we were owed some good baseball karma,” Anderson said. “Some things had to go our way at some point.”

Faith Lutheran (20-15) plays at Basic (21-6) for the 5A Southern Region title at 10 a.m. Saturday. The Crusaders have to win twice to claim the crown, but both teams advance to next week’s state tournament at UNR.

Faith Lutheran, the No. 3 seed from the Mountain League, hosted Friday’s game, but Palo Verde (24-10), the Mountain champion, played as the home team. The Panthers defeated Las Vegas High 6-3 in an elimination game earlier in the day to advance to face the Crusaders.

Faith Lutheran was just a couple of outs away from having its season end when the Crusaders finally got that big break in the seventh, trailing 6-4. Faith Lutheran got a single from Nate Keyes to lead off the inning and start the rally.

Pinch runner Ethan Gordon went to second on a passed ball and scored on a one-out single by Dylan Swanson. Connor Gries then doubled to right field to put runners at second and third.

Anderson called for the squeeze play, but Luke Stringer was unable to bunt the outside pitch, leaving pinch runner Jameson Day caught in no man’s land between third and home.

Day slammed on the brakes and got into a rundown, then was able to sneak past Palo Verde catcher Brady Dallimore, who had come too far up the line to receive the return throw and couldn’t put the tag on Day. Stringer followed that with a single that brought home the go-ahead run.

“That’s just baseball,” Faith Lutheran senior pitcher Jordan Watkins said. “That’s just what happens, and they made some mistakes. We took advantage of it, and it turned out in our favor.”

None of that would have been possible without a gutty performance from Watkins. The senior, who pitched 8⅓ scoreless innings Tuesday, came out of the bullpen and threw 2⅔ scoreless innings Friday to pick up the win, allowing two hits and striking out five.

“He was unbelievable,” Anderson said. “It’s one of the most dominant performances I’ve ever seen in the regional. He went 11 innings on the nose, he stayed under the pitch count number and had 18 punch-outs.

“It was fantastic.”

Anderson turned to Watkins with a runner on second and no outs in the fifth with Palo Verde leading 5-3. Watkins gave up an RBI single to the first batter he faced, Luke Herrera, then struck out the side to keep Faith Lutheran in the game.

“I wanted it,” Watkins said. “I wanted it all day even if my arm was hanging. I wanted to pitch no matter what.”

Watkins reached the tournament innings limit with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, and Stringer came on to record the final out and get the save.

“He’s been a guy that’s done a little bit of everything,” Anderson said of Stringer. “He’s played left, he’s pitched, he’s caught, he’s hit over .300 for us. He’s just a guy that’s just continued to compete for us.”

Kade Gerboc-Chun was 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI for Faith Lutheran.

Keimani Johnson had a three-run triple to highlight a five-run second inning for Palo Verde.